ISLAMABAD – The six-member Joint Investigation team constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe the money trail of Sharif family would start its proceedings from today (Monday).
The ruling Sharif family will try once again to fend off the allegations levelled at them regarding the murky wheeling and dealings allegedly disclosed by a stash of documents named ‘Panama papers’.
The JIT would be headed by an additional director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Wajid Zia and comprises members from civilian and intelligence agencies.
Amer Aziz from State Bank of Pakistan, Bilal Rasool from SECP and Irfan Naeem Mangi from NAB would be part of the Joint Investigation Team.
On the other hand, the members from premier intelligence agencies are Brig. Muhammad Nauman Saeed from ISI and Brig. Kamran Khurshid from the Military Intelligence.
The additional registrar of Supreme Court would brief the members of JIT today after which it would formally start its investigations. A monitoring section has also been set up in the apex court to oversee the progress of the investigative team.
The JIT will present its report to the Supreme Court fortnightly and would be completing the proceedings in sixty days after which a final decision would be made by the apex court whether to disqualify the premier or not.
It bears mentioning that the Supreme Court in its judgement on April 20 had ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team to investigate the money trail of ruling Sharif family.
In its judgement, the Supreme Court had also outlined the scope of the proposed JIT, which would probe how the Gulf Steel Mills in UAE came into being, what led to its sale, what happened to its liabilities, where did its sale proceeds end up, how did they reach Jeddah, Qatar and the UK, whether Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz in view of their ages at the time had the means to possess and purchase the flats, and whether the sudden appearance of the letters of Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani of the Qatar was a myth or a reality.
The court also asked how bearer shares translated into the four upscale flats in London, who was the real and beneficial owner of Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, how did Hill Metal Establishment come into existence, where did the money for Flagship Investment Limited and other companies set up or taken over by Hassan Nawaz and where did the working capital for such companies come from and where do the huge sums running into millions gifted by Hussain Nawaz to the prime minister drop in from, Dawn News reported.
