Panama leaks: CJ delays action on PM letter

Amid Opposition’s protests, Pakistan Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali has seemingly delayed action on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s letter to form a commission to probe the Panama leaks scandal.

Legal and constitutional experts commenting on situation said that though there was no time restriction on the Chief Justice for dealing with the matter but normally the court responds to such matters at the earliest as the apex court is only engaged in a matter of national importance because of its impartiality, respect and acceptability among the stakeholders. They said the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had pushed the top court in an awkward situation by unilaterally drafting Term of Reference (TOR) without taking the other political stakeholders into confidence who had all rejected the government tailored TORs. They added that in given situation when almost all the opposition parties have rejected the TOR for the proposed judicial commission. In this situation how the top court would proceed further on the letter written by the PM a couple of weeks back, just a day before CJ’s departure on a foreign tour, they wondered.