Govt rejects opposition’s demand of JC under serving CJP: sources

ISLAMABAD: The government has rejected opposition parties’ demand of constituting an independent judicial commission under the serving chief justice of Pakistan to probe allegations hurled in Panama Papers, highly-placed sources told Geo News on Thursday.

Revealing the inside story of a high-level government meeting held at PM house earlier today, sources said the attorney general of Pakistan briefed the meeting on Panama Papers leak.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz also attended the meeting as a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member, said the sources. She, during the meeting, vowed to wash all allegation stains on legal and political level, they added.

Maryam regretted politicking on the Panama Leaks issue during the meeting, which was attended by government officials and the PML-N leaders. She said all allegations on Sharif family had proved false in the past and expressed optimism that they will come out clean from the prevailing crisis also.

The meeting takes place in absence of the premier, who is in London for his 'medical checkup'. Interestingly his main rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan is also in London to attend fund-raising events. He has said that he will also meet with companies with expertise in forensic tax auditing.

Besides these two, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is curently in London too but will head to Germany to visit his under-treatment wife soon.

Speculations were rife that Prime Minister Sharif was likely to meet with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who has been staying in London for the past several months. However, the prime minister and PPP sources have ruled out chances of any such meeting.

According to our sources the terms of reference for the formation of judicial commission have been finalized. The meeting at PM House today also agreed that the commission will be completely independent and autonomous and will cover all allegations hurled in Panama Papers.

Commission will be comprised of retired judges as promised by the prime minister and the head of the judicial commission will be a retired judge of the Supreme Court. Two or three retired apex court judges can be included in the commission, said the sources.

The commission will not only probe all accusations against all mentioned Pakistanis in the Panama Papers but will also investigate Pakistanis with dual-nationality.

The meeting also decided that members of Sharif family will not be grilled by the commission, which they decided will also be able to seek services of foreign experts, said the sources. All state institutions will be liable to cooperate with the commission, they added.