ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Nehal Hashmi earned a major embarrassment for his party after a video surfaced on Wednesday showing him threatening ‘those investigating’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family over their offshore businesses.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of Hashmi’s remarks and summoned him in person on Thursday (today) to appear before the bench implementing the Panama Papers verdict.
In the video, the senator had warned that those conducting the investigation will be ‘taken to task’ for grilling the premier’s family. His remarks were apparently made in reference to a Supreme Court-sanctioned investigation into the Sharif family’s business dealings abroad.
Hours after the senator’s incendiary remarks made national headlines, Hashmi’s membership of the PML-N was suspended and a show-cause notice issued to him.
Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said the prime minister had asked Hashmi to hand in his resignation from his Senate seat, which the Senate Secretariat received later in the evening.
Hashmi’s outburst, which appeared to reflect the party’s conviction of the JIT’s partiality, included the warning, “Those who are scrutinising them [Sharif and his sons], we will not spare you. Those grilling [the family] … [be warned that] we will arrange the day of judgment for you. You are making the life of the prime minister difficult, Pakistani nation will make it difficult for you to live. You are in service now but keep in mind that you are to retire one day,” he added, without taking any names.
Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb later clarified that the party does not support what Hashmi said and that it was his ‘personal opinion’. She said the prime minister believed in accountability, adding that he has sought an explanation from Hashmi for his remarks.
Denouncing Hashmi’s statement, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said the PML-N senator’s ‘shameful threats to the superior judiciary and JIT members’ are representative of the party’s political culture.
“They either buy people or try to scare them,” Khan said in a tweet, accusing the ruling party of strong-arming the investigators.
Earlier, Hussain Nawaz, the prime minister’s elder son, had objected to the inclusion of two individuals – Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s Bilal Rasool and State Bank of Pakistan’s Amer Aziz – in the JIT, accusing them of being ‘close’ to PML-N’s political rivals. However, his objections were turned down by the Supreme Court.
