Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan said Thursday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had not provided any new vital information during his appearance before the joint investigation team (JIT) probing money laundering allegations against the premier's family.
He said the speech delivered by Sharif after his appearance before the JIT was old since it had already been read earlier. "They have not provided anything new... any evidence to the JIT," Khan said.
The PTI chairman said the Sharifs' only defence in the investigation was the letter from Qatari prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani.
"Because the Qatari [prince] has refused to appear [before the court]... they have nothing left to explain how money was transferred from here to purchase the 'palaces' in London."
Khan said it was "most shameful" that the prime minister was portraying the probe as some sort of a "conspiracy" against his family. He said Sharif had suggested that the army and judiciary were jointly behind this conspiracy.
Khan said he wants to remind the prime minister that after the new army chief and chief justice took their oaths last year, his daughter Maryam Nawaz had tweeted that the "storm has passed... meaning the conditions were now favourable" for her family.
"This means both the new army chief and chief justice are people who have complete confidence in them [the Sharifs]... today, they [the Sharifs] are pointing fingers at the same people," said Khan.
The Sharif family has done this for the past 30 years, the PTI chief alleged. "The umpire is either their own... or against them."
After a nearly two-hour-long appearance before the Panama Papers JIT on Thursday, Nawaz Sharif said: "My financial documents are already available with all relevant institutions including the Supreme Court. Today, however, I submitted them to the JIT as well."
"It should be noted that these allegations have nothing to do with my tenure as prime minister and are not charges of corruption. They are charges against me and my family on a personal level," PM Nawaz claimed.
He suggested that a "larger JIT" comprising the Pakistani nation will decide his government's fate in the upcoming 2018 General Election.
"People should not forget that there will also be a larger JIT next year comprising 200 million people and they will decide who has worked for the betterment of the country."
