Expert Opinion: What will the Panama Judgment entail?

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is going to announce the long awaited and much hyped Panama Papers Case judgement on Thursday at 2PM. Ahead of the verdict, we take a look at what the country's top legal experts are expecting from the apex court's judgement. 

IFTIKHAR JAVAID QAZI

“If we look at the matter from a technical aspect, since the SC is not the court of original jurisdiction and the matter is about witnesses and genuineness of papers, it is likely that it will decide that this is a matter of [gawahi] so a tribunal or commission must be appointed and sent.”

“Secondly, since they have properties and have not declared the source, so the court might decide against them too.”

SALMAN AKRAM RAJA

“This was a technical and legal matter for the court, and I am positive that the court will decide as per the law. The law is based on a lot of principles, and the verdict will be based on these very same principles. You will see that lawmakers and the students of law will be satisfied from the verdict.”

WASEEM SAJJAD

When asked if he foresees the PM getting disqualified, Sajjad said that he would like to wait for the judgment and see what happens. “It is too late in the day to make predictions,” he said.

BARRISTER ALI ZAFAR

“Anything can happen; it is a short wait till tomorrow. Whatever the verdict is, I hope it is for the betterment of all Pakistanis. We have been anxiously waiting for the verdict, and finally, the wait is over. God willing, we’ll see what is decided tomorrow.”

“When asked how much do the judges focus on observations when they write their judgments, Zafar said that he believes that a discussion on corruption and its negative impacts on the state and public, and suggestions on how to control it in the future will be proposed.”

Answering a question about foreseeing a proper mechanism to address corruption in the verdict, Zafar said, “Definitely it should be proposed so we have a roadmap to deal with corruption.”

“As far as the case at hand is concerned, there are a number of possibilities for the actual result of this case.” “I don’t see the PM getting disqualified but a few sanctions might be placed.”

“I don’t see the PM getting disqualified but a few sanctions might be placed.”