Panama case verdict could strengthen or weaken state: Khursheed Shah

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader Khursheed Shah said on Wednesday regarding the Panama case that it was a testing time for the judges on the apex court bench who had heard the case.

Referring to decisions from the last 70 years, he said the country had witnessed several key apex court verdicts "from Justice Muneer to Anwarul Haq", but the world today was not the same.

"The world appears to be a global village now. It has shrunk, and nothing can be hidden anymore. The situation today is very different. This decision can either strengthen the state or weaken it as well," he said while talking to media in the parliament house.

All eyes are set on the Supreme Court, with barely hours left to go for a scheduled announcement in the Panama leaks case, which took the country by storm over a year ago.

At 2 PM on Thursday, the apex court will announce "not a short but a long detailed judgement" on the Panama Papers revelation that the prime minister's children owned offshore companies dealing in millions of dollars in property transactions.

The case has drawn widespread media attention over the past year.

On Thursday, the apex court could take a range of steps. It could clear the prime minister, or order a further judicial commission of inquiry or even declare him ineligible to hold office, as it did in 2012 with then-Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over a contempt of court case.