The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has appealed to the Supreme Court (SC) to order investigation into the names exposed in this year’s Pandora Papers and the earlier released Panama Papers.
JI Ameer Siraj-ul-Haq filed the application through lawyer Ishtiaq Ahmed Raja on Monday and requested the apex court to allow placements of additional documents (Pandora Papers) in the pending petition on Panama leaks.
The JI had filed the petition before the SC in 2016 on Panama Papers under the article 184(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan.
“We appealed to the Supreme Court [of Pakistan] to constitute a JIT [joint investigation team] to launch an investigation into the owners of shell companies mentioned in Pandora Papers and Panama leaks,” Sirajul Haq told journalists in front of the SC building after filing the application.
Names of more than 700 Pakistanis were exposed in Pandora Papers and 436 owners of offshore companies had already been reported in Panama leaks, he said, adding the JI prayed before the top court that being a competent authority it should provide justice to the poor Pakistanis, whose money was stolen and stashed in foreign accounts by the ruling elite.
He said the action was taken only against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama issue and that he (Nawaz Sharif) too was ousted based on Iqama (KSA and some other Gulf state residential permit).
“Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claims to strengthen accountability system proved a pack of lies. We don’t have any faith in the Prime Minister Cell formed to investigate the Pandora Papers scandal,” he said, and added that only the SC could provide justice to the impoverished.
He said the names of the members of three parties (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Peoples Party Pakistan (PPP)) were mentioned in the two leaks besides the owners of shell companies, who were civil and military bureaucrats, former judges, and businessmen.
Pakistani elite was at number five on the world list, which detailed expensive properties purchased in London and other European countries, while the people of Pakistan were starving to death, said the JI chief.
