Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his post after the Supreme Court disqualified him in the Panama Papers case. This is the third time Nawaz Sharif has been unable to complete his term in the chief executive’s office.
In a landmark judgment, a five Judge bench of Pakistan Supreme Court unanimously ruled to register a case against Nawaz Sharif and his family guilty of money laundering.

Pakistan SC Ruling

Prime Minister had been dishonest to Parliament and the courts, in not disclosing his employment in a Dubai-based company in his 2013 nomination papers, and thus, could not be deemed fit for his office.
It ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference in an accountability court in six weeks and the case must be completed within six months. It also directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to issue a notification declaring the Prime Minister’s disqualification.

Background

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and two sons were engulfed by corruption charges as pointed in Panama Paper leaks. The scandal had revealed that Nawaz Sharif’s sons, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz and his daughter Maryam Nawaz owned offshore companies illegally which managed their family’s properties.

Panama Paper leaks

The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca based in Panama. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The documents had leaked the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. The leaks disclosed 12 national leaders among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known using these offshore tax havens.

Key Facts

No democratically-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan has managed to complete a full term in office in the nation’s 70-year history. Only one Pakistani government has completed its full term, but it had two prime ministers. Besides, Pakistan also has witnessed three successful coups and spent more than half of its time under military rule.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017