ISLAMABAD: Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed wrote dissenting notes in the Panamagate judgement.
Both judges, moving a step further from the trial, declared that all the explanations given by the PM and his children about the properties in question had not been found acceptable and the same were rejected.
They also declared that in the matter of explaining possession and acquisition of the relevant properties in UK, the PM had not been honest to the nation, to the representatives of the nation in Parliament and to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
“Therefore, the PM is declared to be disqualified from being a member of National Assembly and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is directed to de-notify him forthwith,” Justice Khosa stated.
Referring to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, Justice Khosa observed that the neutrality and impartiality of the NAB head had been found to be compromised in the matters of the PM.
Justice Gulzar observed that the court could not be expected to sit as a toothless body and become a mere spectator. “It has to rise above the screen of technicalities and to give a positive verdict for meeting the ends of justice and also to safeguard the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan,” he said.
“The PM made tall claims about facing accountability, but those claims proved hollow. Despite 26 hearings, it couldn’t be determined who was the owner of Mayfair flats,” he stated.
He wrote that Nawaz Sharif’s ownership of the flats through his sons couldn’t be ruled out. Justice Ijaz wrote that Nawaz Sharif and his sons, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, had not rejected the charges, but they had not provided the court with proof of their innocence either.
