ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan will announce the verdict of Panama Papers case on April 20, which was reserved on February 23.
According to the cause list, the verdict will be announced at 2PM on April 20.
On February 23, a five-member bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked that it will review all angles of the case in detail and then announce a verdict.
“It will not be short-judgement but a long judgement,” the bench maintained.
It all began in April 2016 with a huge leak of 11.5 million documents from the database of a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, exposing politicians, celebrities, businessmen and criminals who had set up offshore companies.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family came under fire at home with opposition parties accusing them of widespread corruption, after names of PM’s children cropped up in the leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm.
On October 20, 2016, the Supreme Court took up petitions by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamhoori Watan Party and others for hearing, in an open court, beginning the long-drawn proceedings of the case in the apex court.
The five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court concluded hearing the Panama Papers case on February 23, and reserved the final judgment. Headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the larger bench comprised Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.