Imran Khan asks SC to appoint monitoring judge in Sharif family’s money laundering cases

• Imran Khan asks Supreme Court to take suo moto notice to ensure fair trial.
• Khan claims FIA on PM Shehbaz's behest has taken back challan for supplementary reference to alter cases.
• PTI chairman says Supreme Court was “brazenly lied” to by FIA on special prosecutors.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of the Sharif family’s money laundering case and appoint a “monitoring judge to oversee all mega cases of politicians”.

Taking to Twitter, the former premier alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was “trying to interfere in his and his family's money laundering cases by altering record through friendly prosecution”.

“FIA, on behest of crime minister, has taken back challan for supplementary reference for altering it to destroy the case in toto,” alleged the former prime minister.

The PTI chairman claimed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to “brazenly lied” to the apex court by informing it that the “special prosecutors were laid off as they remained absent”. 

However, he added that the special prosecutors were “present on all dates before the FIA court”.

“SCP must take suo moto notice to ensure fair trial by appointing a monitoring judge to oversee all mega cases of politicians. As it is, five months have passed and FIA court has failed to frame charges. This speaks volumes for how big thieves exploit and manipulate the system,” said the PTI chairman.

In his Twitter thread, the PTI chairman also stated that the NAB amendment bill recently approved by the National Assembly was “basically” a non-reconciliation ordinance. 

He stressed that the amendments would “destroy the anti-corruption drive in Pakistan for all times to come”.

“All cases against Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari will be closed and a new round of mega corruption will commence,” claimed the PTI chairman.

Judge directs FIA to submit supplementary challan

The tweets by the PTI chairman came hours after Special Court Central-I Judge Ijaz Hassan Awan, hearing the PM and Chief Minister Punjab Hamza’s money laundering case, directed FIA to submit a supplementary challan with the correct details of the accused.

In his written order, the judge noted that in the last hearing non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for Suleman Shehbaz, Malik Maqsood Ahmad, Syed Tahir Naqvi and Ghulam Shabbar.

“Said warrants have been received with the report that Suleman Shahbaz and Syed Tahir Naqvi are residing out of country and are avoiding service of warrants of arrest intentionally and have concealed themselves for this purpose,” the order read.

The court noted that Malik Maqsood Ahmad’s address given by the FIA did not exist and was “quite incorrect”. On the other hand, Ghulam Shabbar, another accused in the case passed away on May 11, 2021.

However, the court noted that while submitting the report, the prosecution had not mentioned the names of the fathers of any accused mentioned in the challan.

“Therefore, before proceeding further the prosecution is directed to submit supplementary challan recording correct names of the accused, those of their fathers and their complete and correct addresses. In view of the above, the case is adjourned for supplementary challan on 04.06.2022,” said the judge.