Money and malfeasance: LHC asks politicians to file foreign assets details
The Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice issued notices on Tuesday to some of the country’s most prominent politicians, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, following a writ petition alleging they were misappropriating public funds.
Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry directed President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, among others, to file their replies, along with their affidavits, regarding the details of their worldwide assets by the first week of December.
Other respondents in the petition include the PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and PPP-ZAB chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto. The Cabinet federal secretary and ministry of law and justice secretary were also respondents in the petition.
The chief justice issued the order on a petition filed by Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey, who filed the main petition in 1993 and requested that the respondents be directed to provide a verified list of their worldwide assets. Recently, Barrister Jaffery filed an amended writ petition alleging that the politicians in question had looted public money and had transferred billions of rupees into their foreign bank accounts.
Nawaz Sharif transferred $3 billion, mostly to the UK, where two of his sons had acquired property, he submitted, further alleging that Prime Minister Gilani had spent about Rs500 million from public funds on his houses in Multan and Lahore.
The barrister also requested the court to direct the federal board of revenue and all anti-corruption departments to subject the respondents to a lie detector test.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2011.
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Good move, lets hope we find truth on foreign asset holding of these big wigs
The intention might be good, but what a meaningless thing to do
All of the above mentioned people, at one point or another, have filed their Statement of Assets, at the time of filing their nomination papers, with the Returning Officer of the Election Commission. Their respective parties get their accounts audited, every year, and file them with the Election Commission.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, any discrepancy, should have been questioned. The petition should have been returned with this objection !