Pakistan

After 26 years, LHC to hear PM Nawaz foreign assets case

LHC forms larger bench comprising five judges; hearing of the case to begin on May 8

Rana Tanveer May 06, 2015

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. PHOTO: AFP

The Lahore High Court (LHC) decided on Wednesday to form a larger bench to probe a foreign assets case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

After 26 years, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik formed a five-member larger bench to investigate money laundering allegations against the premier.

The bench will be headed by Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan and will include Justice Muhammad Qasim, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Faisal Zaman and Justice Mirza Waqas Raoof.

Read: Foreign assets: PM, top politicians summoned by LHC

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafri had originally filed the petition against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1991. He alleged in an FIR that PM Nawaz is involved in laundering money out of Pakistan after plundering the national exchequer.

Pleading the court to open an investigation against him, Barrister Jafri asked the court to bring back the money plundered by PM Nawaz and take action against him.

On the last day of the hearing, Justice Farrukh had forwarded the petition to the chief justice to form a larger bench to probe the matter.

The bench would hold proceedings starting from May 8 (Friday).

COMMENTS (34)

Mirza | 9 years ago | Reply LHC has nothing better to do? All of a sudden they are waking up. LHC should confine itself only to punish political and popularly elected leaders of Sindh and other smaller provinces.

Faysal | 9 years ago | Reply "After 26 years, LHC to hear PM Nawaz foreign assets case" to give him a clean chit.

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S.R.H. Hashmi | 9 years ago | Reply Alleged money-laundering case against Nawaz Sharif being heard after 26 years. Perhaps the courts had been too busy trying other, more important cases. Also, I suppose it would have been extremely unfair to cut short the career of a budding politician. But why hear it at all after 26 years when much of the evidence, and witnesses would not be readily available / accessible making the case likely to flop? I suppose it is time to relieve the man of the blemish he has been carrying all these years, and give him a clean chit so that he can rule another 26 years, entirely unblemished this time, before he deciding to hand over reins to the next generation, not of the nation but of the Sharif family. And that reminds me. The unreasonable and totally uncalled for Constitutional restriction on the terms a prime minister can serve, I am sorry rule, has to be removed, or better still, Constitution amended to introduce the position of Ameer-ul-Momineen, for life. Karachi Karachi.

asim | 9 years ago | Reply Very long pending case

abbas | 9 years ago | Reply It will serve him good, because now he is in power destroy the case and have a rest while you are not in government

A.M.K | 9 years ago | Reply What are reason after 26 yrs,criminals in past have become,P.M's & Presidents & sitting PM's removed on criminal account ?Does our Judiciary wants to do the unpleasant work of being fare ?

Khan | 9 years ago | Reply establishment tried to unseat the prime minister through dharnas. but the dharana khan did not deliver on that front. now, it is another attempt, a deadly one. he will be sent packing just like former prime minister Gilani. would somebody get rid of this establishment for us. they eat our bread and fatten on public money and then twirl their mustaches and conspire against democracy

Ranjha | 9 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqui: NS and family don’t have any money abroad and I dare anyone to say otherwise. They are honest people who are be maligned by Niazi! NAwaZI is a liar and a cheap cheat and you are a darbari. Period.

jack | 9 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqui: @z: R u both the same? Haha

eloquence | 9 years ago | Reply @Frank: Criminals are punished in India? Cmon dear. Forgot Modi? We are better off. At least our PM is not a murderer and a racist and a hatemonger. Please do away with so much self-scolding. We are not that bad :)

IBN E ASHFAQUE | 9 years ago | Reply Looks somebody has moved the courts. Looks like we are again inching away towards a soft coup without a formal takeover. Oh my God it looks so hopeless.

AA | 9 years ago | Reply @Frank: Salman Khan is not a sitting prime minister, Modi is and yes whether India or Pakistan, criminals do become president and prime ministers, but we do not make them, illiteracy, mob politics and religious fanaticism does.

Whiskey Khan | 9 years ago | Reply This is the kind of check and balance is required to make Pakistan corrupt free, provided the Judiciary is fair and independent

MMB | 9 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqui: Seriously, your standards of arguments are losing grip day by day, Trust me, howmuch you have advertised for Imran Khan in any news or any article not even relevant to Imran Khan or politics, it is even much more than all the channels coverage for him. Thank you for that brother Adnan, I expect you to continue your anti-Imran ram-leela with full pace while we continue to love him more and more. Cheers buddy

z | 9 years ago | Reply Mr Niazi, get your bags full of evidences and go to the LHC without any delay. Please prove it to the nation that you are a true statesman. If you don't have one, please take a help from Reham, she might have some. Please do something! Premiership is waiting for you.

raider | 9 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqui: firstly i thought you are only cynic but today you proved that you r nothing short of a mad

raider | 9 years ago | Reply it is high time, corrupt nawaz be sentenced very crimes he committed during 90s where he had become amer ul momineen, he had to accomplish mission of his boss zia ul haq, then new din-e-butt promulgated where tahsildars and thanidars were allocated as gifts to politicians, then came mehran bank infamous batwara, still law prevails in Pakistan plz come out influence of these habitual culprits, they are hiding behind Chinese investment and metro buses and trains, much awaited justice plz

Adnan Siddiqui | 9 years ago | Reply NS and family don't have any money abroad and I dare anyone to say otherwise. They are honest people who are be maligned by Niazi!

rashid | 9 years ago | Reply Golden chance, get rid of him once and for all. Need a statesman not a business man.

Wasif M Khan | 9 years ago | Reply Good work, but where is the ONE judge of the LHC who is dispensing justice without fear or favour? The brethren shudder at his name and at his just and bold decisions. Without him this bench doesn't really have the teeth it needs to chew the Mians off!

raider | 9 years ago | Reply @z: they are hand in gloves with some elements of judiciary and assurance would have been given to get them clean chit like previously zardari did during his tenure

z | 9 years ago | Reply I think Imran Niazi and his cults have an golden opportunity now to prove his allegations of laundring on PM. Mr. Niazi, please prove it now and provide all the evidences to the court in addition to what are being heard, or keep your mouth shut forever. Thanks

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply Although the truth is known to all......the case is being heard so that officially it can be said that we are blind and deaf.

Proud Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply @Frank: Its better for you to move to India so that you can be....

Frank | 9 years ago | Reply Why do Pakistani newspapers not let us state the plain and honest fact that nearly all our politicians are crooks? The greater his seniority the bigger the criminal he will be. Do you people think you're defending democracy by stifling free speech and suppressing basic facts of political life here?

M, Ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply This is not on a normal curve. It is an extra-ordinary judicial matter. A sitting PM being probed for his assets after 26 long years. That too by LHC. As if it was rotting for 26 years and now that it has started to stink the mess has to be done away with. A clean chit is now a necessity after all the hullabaloo created by the PTI chief about the PM's Park Lane London apartment (he quotes the address too) and other overseas wealth of the Sharif family. With Zardari facing the asset reference case in NAB Islamabad, the timing of the judicial matter in Lahore is a bull's eye. Both the cases will have a political fall out. PML(N) will surely look bright. PPP's fate is a big question mark. Anyone disagrees with me.

Imran | 9 years ago | Reply Self cleaning of politicians has brgun. After Zardari, Nawaz has also started to eliminate his cases from his favourite judiciary.

naeemhussain | 9 years ago | Reply He will be st free. Mian family taking all the pending cases to the courts and are equitted in almost all the cases because of their influence on the judiciary. In this case I am sure they themselves have pushed the court to listen their case and free them.

Anoni | 9 years ago | Reply None found ... Case close

Gramscian | 9 years ago | Reply @A-No.1: Come on. He is the most honest and incorruptible leader the world has ever seen. Signle-handedly built his business empire, along with Dar's and other family members, without an iota of corruption. If you are in doubt, ask any NS supporter. As far as this case is concerned, its an eye wash. Nothing is going to happen.

Shakil | 9 years ago | Reply after 25 years when money trail would have gone by now! when the laundered money is invested in Westminster district of London and British Virgin Islands offshore accounts and companies. This is only resurrected to clear the names of so very Sharifs!

A Khan | 9 years ago | Reply GIVEN THE TRACK IN OUR COUNTRY, THE CASE SEEMS TO BE NAWAZ LAUNDERING. The case would never be upheld if it were not meant to give a clean chit to Nawaz Sharif. OR OR the London plan is still on.

Frank | 9 years ago | Reply Compare this to the Salman Khan case. In India criminals are punished while in Pakistan we make them our Presidents and Prime Ministers. What a joke of a country we are!

A-No.1 | 9 years ago | Reply Lets see if the court dispenses justice or kicks the can down the road.

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