Panamagate verdict: Imran to attend top court hearing on JIT progress

The Joint Investigation Team will submit its first fortnightly report before the three-judge bench

ISLAMABAD: PTI chief Imran Khan is likely to attend the proceedings of the Supreme Court bench which takes up the matter of implementation of Panamagate verdict on Monday (today).

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will submit its first fortnightly report before the three-judge bench, informing it about progress made by the six-member probe team into the Sharif family’s offshore assets.

PTI has already announced that it would await the outcome of the May 22 hearing and then decide whether or not to file a formal request to the court to bind JIT to issue an official statement on a daily basis informing stakeholders about its progress.

There are reports suggesting that Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar has already delivered a sealed envelope to Qatari Prince Hamad Bin Jassim, possibly containing the JIT questionnaire.



The JIT is also likely to inform the court about statements it recently recorded of individuals involved in the matter and details of records it already scrutinised as part of the on-going investigations.

It is also learnt that the JIT would also inform the court about its decision on hiring a local chartered accountant firm to help the team investigate.

The JIT will also inform about its efforts to hire the services of a UK-based audit firm for forensic audits to validate the information the Sharif family had submitted about its London properties.

A JIT member, Bilal Rasool, who represents the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in the six-man probe committee, had been tasked to search some suitable firm for the purpose.

It was decided that the inquiry team would only treat authenticated and certified copies of relevant record as ‘admissible evidence’.



The decision was taken after the JIT members scrutinised the 17-year-old record of Hudaibya Paper Mills and other non-certified documents, submitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The JIT also scrutinised the record of tax returns filed by Prime Minister Sharif.

Moreover, the JIT members examined the asset statements filed by the prime minister and his son-in-law for the period between 2013 and 2016 by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).