Justice Khalid Mehmood Khan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday fixed April 18 for further arguments on a petition challenging alleged foreign assets maintained by 64 known personalities of Pakistan, including incumbent and former rulers and their family members, two former chief justices, lawyers and property tycoons.
Petitioner Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafri submitted to the court that the aforementioned people stashed away billions of rupees abroad and pushed the country into a dire financial crisis. He said that transfer of Pakistan’s assets to foreign banks caused an increase in unemployment, price hike and poverty in the country. He said that Pakistan became a laughing stock in the civilised world and practically a failed state because of corruption and misconducts of the respondents. He asked the court to order the respondents to submit the details of their bank accounts and foreign assets and bring their foreign assets back to the country.
The petitioner has made the following people respondents in his petition: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, son Hussain Nawaz and brother Shahbaz Sharif; Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and his ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith; former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and his wife; former president Asif Ali Zardari, his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur; Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan; former military ruler Pervez Musharraf; former interior minister Rehman Malik; PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujat Hussain; former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi; former federal ministers Faisal Saleh Hayat, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Javed Hashmi and Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman; Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad; former Punjab governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar; National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq; Farooq Sattar; Jahangir Tareen; Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar; Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed; Malik Riaz Hussain of Bahria Town; former chief justices Khawaja Muhammad Sharif and Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court; former presidents of the SCBA Hamid Khan and Asma Jahangir; Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and his wife Bushra Aitzaz; former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Aziz Sethi; former Senate chairman Wasim Sajjad; lawyers Sharifuddin Pirzada and Ahmar Bilal Soofi and the late Benazir Bhutto.
