Panama Papers: JIT recommends reopening of 15 cases against Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is to appear before a Supreme Court-appointed high-level committee investigating the high-profile Panamagate graft case on Monday. The six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by Wajid Zia has recommended reopening of 15 cases against the prime minister.

Of the 15 cases, “three were registered during the 1994 and 2011 tenures of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and 12 during President Pervez Musharraf regime, soon after he toppled the Mr Sharif government in the October 1999 military coup,” Dawn reported.

Sharif, and this three children—Maryam, Hussain and Hasan—are being investigated for money laundering through which they allegedly bought four apartments in London’s Park Lane area.  The details about the assets had surfaced during the Panama Papers leak last year.

Sharif had dismissed the JIT’s findings of “assets being more than known sources of income” as “bundle of baseless allegations”, Indian Express reported. Sharif is the first sitting prime minister to depose before such a panel.