JIT saga in chronological order: What happened why, when and how?

ISLAMABAD: The Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which presents its conclusive report before the three-member special bench of the Supreme Court on Monday suffered a tumultuous 60-day life as is evident from the chronology of developments and events, some of them very embarrassing and discomforting, it experienced.

The JIT’s ‘final’ findings will be as tremendously controversial as the forum itself had been for a variety of actions it took and a number of rows that surrounded it. They will be absolutely flawed and unsound in the absence of testimony of former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, the most important witness of the Sharif family, who had provided the money trail of in-question financial transactions. The respondents have now unambiguously declared that the JIT determinations will be unacceptable for lacking this vital piece of evidence, leaving no doubt about their rejection and intention to challenge the report for being imperfect and lopsided.

This was the first JIT of its kind in Pakistan that was constituted by the apex court, which keenly oversaw its functioning and kept extending every kind of support and backing. The highest judicial body and other superior courts had been forming commissions but they have never created such teams of investigators. A JIT can only be set up under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 that comprises representatives from civilian and military agencies, police, special branch etc.

Never ever was any investigative body such unprecedentedly powerful, having all the state institutions at its beck and call with the Supreme Court standing behind it as this JIT was. Every individual regardless of his official or other status and every government department were bound to cooperate with it or face the danger of contempt of court proceedings. There was not a single instance where anybody summoned by it declined to come forward at its appointed time. Even the most influential figures like Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the premier’s three children bowed before the process of law irrespective of the fact that the JIT comprised their subordinate officials. The team did pick up the courage to call such mighty personalities.

No JIT or any other investigative panel was ever as massively contentious as this body had been from day one. However, the harangue against it did not deter it from grappling with its assignment at the pace it had set due to the cutoff date. The team was bound to come under terrible political pressure and assault because the matter it was probing was totally political, much more political than being legal or constitutional.

A major omission that the JIT had was the absence of a representative of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that was often mentioned in furious public debate with a lot of reservations, voiced not only by the government leaders but several other elements, who failed to find even slight justification for this exclusion.

The JIT had no officially designated spokesman to release any information about its inquiry. But it did keep leaking choice details of its hearings to a set of favourite media outlets to achieve its own objectives.

When the Supreme Court handed down its split judgment on April 20, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) distributed sweets to express its joy and jubilation over its ‘victory’ while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rubbished it for being composed of officers subordinate to the premier.

However, a reversal of roles took place very soon as the JIT launched its work, with the PTI starting showering kudos on it and the PML-N picking holes in it. A number of bloomers and faux pas that the JIT committed provided enormous ammo to the PML-N to lambaste it mercilessly. Its blunders projected it as a biased and partisan forum. On the other hand, the PTI showed a great love for it and went to the extent of threatening to launch an elusive protest campaign to thwart the onslaught against the JIT.

A drama, full of action, thrill and suspense unfolded on the very day the JIT was formed on May 5 by Justice Ejaz Afazal Khan led three-member bench. The PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other opposition parties instantly rejected it. However, the PML-N welcomed it.

On May 22, the JIT presented its first interim report to the bench; came out with its second report on June 7 and produced its third findings on June 22.

On June 14, the JIT issued an extremely harsh charge-sheet against the Prime Minister House, IB, Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Board of Revenue and federal law ministry alleging that the government machinery has been misused to hamper and hinder its investigations. This ignited a huge storm with every key institution, put on the mat, issuing strong rebuttals.

In its formal complaint filed with the apex court, the JIT admitted using the “analysis of technical means” (tapping of telephones) when it stated that the premier’s cousin, Tariq Shafi, was “tutored” by Haroon Pasha at the Prime Minister House about his subsequent testimony to the investigators. The monitoring of telephones of the most important office for this purpose and not for security objectives was unheard of.

In its complaint, the JIT accused the SECP of tampering the record of Sharif’s Chaudhry Sugar Mills, a charge that turned out to be just an omission, lapse in the form of an inconsequential back-dated entry in a second file about this case, which was formally closed in 2013 after a detailed inquiry.

On June 4, a photo grab of the CCTV footage of Hussain from the interrogation room was deliberately leaked to inflict political damage to the first family but it boomeranged. This fueled an extraordinary political tempest, providing a justification to the PML-N to buttress its attack on the JIT. According to its own account, the JIT quietly probed the picture leak within 24 hours and presented its report to the bench. Six days later, Hussain filed a petition before the bench complaining about the leak. By that time, the court had received the JIT inquiry into this incident, but the petitioner was not told about it.

On April 28 (a week before the JIT was formed by the bench), a bombshell emerged when SECP Chairman Zafarul Haq Hijazi wrote a letter to the Supreme Court registrar, raising the issue of a WhatsApp call to him on behalf of the JIT seeking nomination of a specific officer for the team. The letter gave details of how by using iPhone application Hijazi was conveyed, “the directions are that the name of Bilal Rasool should be included in the new panel” and that initially the registrar spoke to him from his official number but before concluding told him that he wants to immediately talk to him through WhatsApp. This and similar calls were made to the State Bank of Pakistan and NAB chiefs on April 27. On July 6, it emerged that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is in control of secretarial and administrative affairs of the JIT, not on its own, but on the court direction.

Before that on June 7, it became known that not only the defence ministry (read ISI) officials are in control of the JIT secretariat, even the seating arrangement of the JIT also indicated as to who are calling the shots. Representatives of intelligence agencies sit on the left and the right of JIT head Wajid Zia as they conduct interrogations. This signified the ubiquitous influence of the ISI in the JIT.

On July 2, another embarrassing fact transpired that a majority of the JIT members were not even given the time to go through the material/documents/complaints which were submitted before the court by the JIT and they were just asked to sign them at the eleventh hour. This raised a telling question as to who is drafting this stuff.

On May 15, the premier’s cousin Tariq Shafi appeared before the JIT and later wrote a letter to the JIT head, complaining that he was threatened and intimidated by some of its members to withdraw his affidavit earlier filed in the Supreme Court or face a 14-year imprisonment. No action was taken on it.

On June 7, a Sharif family friend Javed Kayani was interviewed by the JIT, and he alleged that he was asked to become approver but he refused and told the investigators that he had been honourably acquitted in the Hudaibiya case nearly two decades back. However, key PML-N leaders have uninterruptedly claimed that the JIT was looking for “a Masood Mehmood” (notorious approver in the Bhutto murder case).

On June 10, National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmad presented himself before the investigators and subsequently complained in a letter to the court registrar that he was treated like a condemned prisoner. No action was taken on his protest.

On July 4, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar answered questions from the JIT and afterwards addressed a matchlessly unforgiving presser, lashing out at his detractors in a language that showed that his patience has run out due to their constant hammering.

Among others, there were two apparently odd witnesses – former NAB Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Amjad Naqvi and ex-Interior Minister Rehman Malik – who appeared before the JIT on being summoned.

History was made on June 15 when the prime minister produced himself before the JIT, a spectacle that can never be witnessed in a dictatorial rule. He said afterwards that puppet games have come to an end now; that if the special-agenda factories, trampling the mandate of the people, do not wind up their business now, not only the Constitution and democracy, but national security would also be jeopardized; and “we will not let the wheel of history turn in the opposite direction. The days of games behind the scenes are now over”.

On July 5, remembered as a black day in Pakistan due to the imposition of General Ziaul Haq’s martial law, Maryam came before the JIT. After that she delivered an impressive, first-ever, political speech, which was billed as her formal launch in politics. The JIT summoned Hussain for six times; Hassan for three times, Kayani twice etc.

On April 8 (12 days before the apex court delivered its ruling), military spokesman tweeted that the Pakistan Army, like every Pakistani, awaits a decision based on justice and merit.

On April 24, the corps commanders discussed the Panama case judgment with special reference to JIT and pledged that the military through its members in this team shall play its due role in a legal and transparent manner fulfilling confidence reposed by the apex court.

Till the last moment, the JIT kept locking horns with the Qatari sheikh by exchanging letters with him about his interview, provoking the PML-N to point out that if investigators had questioned former dictator Pervez Musharraf at his farmhouse after waiting for hours outside it, and Pakistani American Mansoor Ijaz through a video link in the past, why the Gulf leader can’t be interviewed like this. The PML-N kept fuming over the JIT actions and at one point two of its leaders compared its proceedings with a ‘butcher’s shop’ and James Bond 007 thriller.