What is the issue?
A three-member Bench of the Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz Sharif from PM’s office.
What is the case?
- In the recently unearthed Panama Papers scandal, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister was accused.
- He was acting as a director in a company registered in the UAE while he was heading the government.
- The decision is based on the report by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) established by the orders of the court to investigate Mr. Sharif and his family’s assets in offshore companies.
- Mr. Sharif should not hold office as per Article 62 (1) (f) of the 1973 Constitution as he would be declared as not being sadiq (truthful) and ameen (honest).
What will be the impact?
- Nawaz Sharif resigned from office.
- There will not an election soon due to the need for a new delimitation of constituencies based on the recently held census.
- His two sons and a daughter are also named in the Panama leaks. If the entire family is disqualified, there will be infighting in the party for grabbing the power.
- It is not that lack of accountability is not a huge problem in Pakistan but that accountability has always been used as a political tool to punish rivals.
- In the absence of the enactment of a strong law or principle of the rule of law, even courts are perceived by the common man as either corrupt or highly political.
Quick Fact
Panama Papers leak
- It is a huge leak of documents that exposed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.
- The files were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca.
Source: The Hindu
