The Supreme Court hearing the Panamagate case, involving the children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has badly exposed the state institutions, especially the FBR and NAB. The PTI chairman, who is the lead petitioner in the case, targeted the FBR and the NAB saying both the institutions have miserably failed in launching even a small inquiry against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif despite a myriad of corruption allegations against his family.
According to Imran, the FBR which was supposed to take on the 440 people whose names surfaced in the Panama Papers for holding offshore companies, is busy protecting the skin of its 'boss' (prime minister) in order to be in his good books. He said if the institutions fail, as it has happened in Pakistan, the law becomes redundant and poor gets poorer and the rich gets richer, adding there is one law for the handful elite while there is another law for the poor.
"The rule of law has become a joke as fake FIRs have been registered by Sharifs against most of my party leaders, including me, in Punjab for no reason, and the reference against me in Election Commission is another glaring example how things are run here," he lamented.
The speakers of National Assembly and Punjab Assembly, are both the courtiers of Sharifs and they rejected the references against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif because they do not have the courage to speak against them. "All this is being done just to blackmail me in a bid to build pressure for not pursuing the Panama Leaks case but it is their wishful thinking and I'll fight to the end unless the people of this country are given justice," he maintained.
He said that the money trail of the Sharif family is yet to be proved, for which they are dragging in the Qatari prince despite knowing that they would not be able to save their skin, adding the way attorney general for Pakistan argued before the court today (Wednesday) put all Pakistanis to shame.
"Look he says Articles 62 and 63 do not apply on the prime minister...just imagine a prime minister who is a member of parliament, and the attorney general says that the articles 62, 63 can not be applied on him," he added. The PTI chairman confidently said that he would accept the apex court's verdict in Panama Leaks case, saying the whole nation has fixed its eyes on the apex court as the case will prove to be a turning point in history of the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017