ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday reiterated its demand that the proceedings of joint investigation team (JIT), formed to investigate Panama Papers allegations, be opened for media to ensure transparency.

In a meeting held here with Chairman PTI Imran Khan, the senior party leadership said that Panama Papers case is the case of the whole nation and there should be no compromise on it. “Just like the proceedings of the Panama papers case in the Supreme Court, the proceedings of JIT should also be opened for media,” they added.

The issue of Dawn Leaks report was also discussed and the party called upon the government to make the report public instead of doing politics on it as it is matter of national security.

The party said that any attempt by the government to hide the report of the one-man commission on Dawn Leaks will not be allowed, adding the delay in releasing the report and bringing those involved in it should end now.

The meeting was also briefed about the Asghar Khan case, in which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is allegedly accused of taking money from top spy agency for toppling the democratically elected government of the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990.

The PTI, which has already announced to approach the Supreme Court against the delay in initiating probe into the matter by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), decided that a petition will be filed in the apex court to implement the court’s verdict in Asghar Khan case.

A senior party leader privy to the meeting said that the PTI will file a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking implementation on the verdict in Air Marshal Asghar Khan (retired) case regarding the rigging of the 1990 election and that it would also approach the court against Nawaz Sharif for allegedly taking money from the al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The PTI possesses no evidence to substantiate its case in the court, except for some interviews and excerpts from a book titled ‘Khalid Khawaja: Shaheed-e-Aman,’ he said.

The book was written by Shamama Khalid, wife of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative Khalid Khawaja who was murdered by Taliban in North Waziristan in 2010.

The book claims that Sharif took Rs 1.5 billion from Osama bin Laden to promote jihad in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan. The book further claims that Rs 270 million were used to support a no-confidence motion against Benazir Bhutto in 1989.

In 2013, PTI leader Masood Sharif Khan Khattak, former director general of the Intelligence Bureau, submitted a written statement in the Supreme Court in a case related to the misappropriation of secret funds during 1989.

In his nine-page statement, Khattak said the main forces behind the vote of no-confidence against Bhutto were then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and then Army Chief Mirza Aslam Baig.

Last week, the PTI announced it would open up another legal front against Sharif, saying it would file a petition demanding the implementation on the 2012 verdict of the apex court in the Asghar Khan case.

The court had determined that Sharif and other politicians received money from an intelligence agency before the 1990 general election to form an alliance against Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party.