On Friday, PML-N spokesman Marriyum Aurangzeb dismissed the government’s decision to designate retired Supreme Court judge Azmat Saeed Sheikh as head of the Broadsheet investigative committee, citing his prior association with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as establishing a “conflict of interest in the transparency and fairness of the investigation”
The assassination of justice is the shift of prosecutions to those that should [themselves] be prosecuted. [Prime Minister] Imran Khan, have the confidence to say you need an NRO to the country (National Reconciliation Ordinance).
The statement claimed that the nomination of the former judge was a “big fraud” and “controversial” because during the initial signing of the Broadsheet agreement, Justice Sheikh had acted as NAB’s deputy prosecutor general and was one of the negotiators in the contract along with being a senior legal officer at the time.
The statement further claimed that Justice Sheikh had acted as a member of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital’s board of governors, adding that this revealed the “ill-intent” of PM Imran behind handing over the Broadsheet inquiry to him.
How will the former deputy prosecutor general’s inquiry be open and fair? The assertion was disputed, adding that ” questioned the statement, adding that “
She further alleged that during the period of Pervez Musharraf, Sheikh, as deputy prosecutor general, had also been charged with rendering lawsuits against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif. “no one should be a judge in his own case or in the case of those with whom he has a relationship or conflict [of interest].”in his own case or in the case of those with whom he has a relationship or conflict of interest, no one should be a judge.
Sprinkling salt on the wounds is not a joke,”The nation wants accountability for those who loot and squander their earnings, sprinkling salt on the wounds is not a joke,”The nation wants accountability for those who loot and squander their earnings.
In order to examine the question of the UK-based asset recovery company Broadsheet LLC, Justice Sheikh was named as the head of the investigative committee. At its meeting on January 19, the federal cabinet agreed to form a new inquiry committee on the advice of an inter-ministerial committee that had previously been set up by the prime minister to look into the Broadsheet saga.
Broadsheet saga
Broadsheet LLC, a UK firm incorporated in the Pervez Musharraf period on the Isle of Man, helped track down foreign assets bought by Pakistanis through suspected ill-gotten wealth by the then government and the newly formed NAB.
Broadsheet reported that it was set up to enter into an Asset Recovery Arrangement dated 20 June 2000, and did so through the chairman of the NAB with the then President of Pakistan for the purpose of retrieving funds and other properties fraudulently withdrawn from the state and other agencies, including through corrupt practises, and kept outside Pakistan.
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Broadsheet maintains that it was founded as a business specialised in the retrieval of properties and funds, and was thus dedicated to monitoring, identifying and restoring those objects to the state.
Broadsheet and another corporation involved as a third party sued for damages after NAB cancelled the deal in 2003, saying Pakistan owed them cash under the terms decided upon because the government was taking steps to confiscate some of the properties they had listed, including the property owned by the Sharif family in Avenfield.
The arguments of the firms against Pakistan were found true by an arbitration court and later by a high court in the United Kingdom, which last year paid Pakistan over $28 million.
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