[Iran Press TV] Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
has for the first time explicitly rejected a report from a corruption investigation that raised questions about the source of his family's wealth.
Sharif in a statement after meeting his cabinet in the Pak capital Islamabad on Thursday described the probe as "slander."
"The JIT report about our family businesses are the sum of hypotheses, accusations and slander," the statement read, adding, "Accusations amounting to billions are being made here but no wrongdoing has been proven."
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by the Supreme Court to investigate corruption claims that surfaced following the Panama Papers leak, spent two months probing the Sharif family’s wealth and gave its finding to the court on Monday.
The JIT team comprised members of civilian and powerful military bodies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence
...the Pak military
intelligenceagency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir...
agency (ISI).
The court will now decide how to proceed with the report and whether to call for a trial. There were also calls for Sharif to be disqualified.
The 254-page report alleges Sharif’s businesses alone are not enough to explain the family’s wealth, which includes flats in an upscale London borough.
Sharif has always denied any wrongdoing over his family allegedly using offshore companies to buy luxury flats in a posh London neighborhood, and said his family wealth was acquired legally.
Sharif, 67, has been defiant in his condemnation of the report that alleges his family's income from business was not large enough to explain its wealth.