PM Nawaz to address nation on Panama leaks commission

PM Nawaz to address nation on Panama leaks commission

Shiite News: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will address the nation Friday evening, his second since the Panama Papers revelations have surfaced, to take the nation into confidence over ‘important national issues’.

Sources at the PM House told Dawn.com that the premier is expected to announce the setting up of a commission to probe the allegations on his children in the aftermath of the Panama data leaks.

They added that the PM may announce the writing of a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, in which the government will request him to nominate a serving Supreme Court judge to head the commission.

Yesterday, at a special sitting of senior members of the cabinet, advisers and party leaders, the prime minister expressed a desire to ‘settle this issue once and for all’, according to an aide who attended the meeting, Dawn newspaper reports.

In his April 6 address to the nation, the premier in an effort to calm the storm whipped up by the Panama Papers had announced that a judicial commission would investigate the offshore companies owned by members of his family.

A sombre-sounding prime minister said he had taken the decision because “fingers are being pointed at the business concerns of my sons”.

Since then, the PML-N government has come under increasing pressure to ensure a transparent investigation of the Panama allegations, especially after the Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif on Thursday dismissed at least six senior army officers on charges of corruption.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali is scheduled to travel to Turkey tomorrow on a week-long visit to participate in the annual ceremony of the Turkish constitutional court.

Justice Saqib Nisar will perform duties as the Chief Justice in his absence.