The Panama Papers case in numbers

ISLAMABAD: The Panama Leaks case against the Sharif family spread over 273 days, taking 150 hours of the Supreme Court in 50 hearings.

The documents presented before the court comprised 14,000 pages, while 307 questions were asked during the hearings, besides the around 60-day probe of the joint investigation team led by FIA Additional Director General Wajid Zia.

The apex court bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, conducted 26 hearings of the case, whereas the implementation bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal, held 15 hearings.

Earlier, the bench headed by then Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali conducted nine hearings of the case, but due to the retirement of Justice Jamali, it was decided that a new bench will hear the case from the beginning.

The counsels of the parties referred to 315 cases, reading out excerpts from verdicts by different courts from over two dozen countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Bangladesh and New Zealand.

In its April 20 order, two of five members of the bench, led by Justice Khosa, recommended the prime minister's disqualification, however, the other three members stressed on investigations and hence a JIT was constituted.

The prime minister’s counsel, Makhdoom Ali Khan, presented arguments before the bench led by Justice Khosa for 17 hours, which spanned over a week's hearing. Khan, in his arguments, referred to 152 court cases and judicial precedents from 18 countries.

PTI's counsel, Naeem Bukhari, presented arguments before both benches for a total of 21 hours.

Out of the total 307 questions, 170 were asked by the honourable judges, while the rest were raised by lawyers, investigators, defendants and prosecution.

Judges and lawyers read the transcript of the prime minister's speeches 111 times while they mentioned former premier of Qatar Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani 131 times during the hearings.

PTI chairman Imran Khan attended court proceedings 32 times, while Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq attended 30 hearings. Some key leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan also attended proceedings during the last five hearings of the case.

The hearings, with lots of ifs and buts, ended with the court's following observation: "Have faith that every word presented by the parties in their arguments has been carefully read and will again be read. We are also reviewing the matter of disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — defendant number 1".