ISLAMABAD: Declaring the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) `completely flawed` and the work of some ghost writers, the ruling Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) has decided to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed his legal team to prepare a comprehensive petition challenging the JIT findings point-by-point to be filed in the Supreme Court, possibly before Monday, when the apex court is set to begin a formalhearing of the Panama Papers case in the light of the JIT report.

The prime minister gave the goahead after holding a consultative meeting with the members of his kitchen cabinet` at PM House forthe second consecutive day on Tuesday.

Sources said the meeting, which lasted more than four hours, was also attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the prime minister`s daughter Maryam Nawaz, who briefed the participants on their experience at the time of their appearance before the JIT earlier this month. It wasdecided at the consultative meeting that the prime minister would not step down.

According to the sources, the PML-N leaders asked the prime minister to fully empower his lawyers to use every available legal option to expose the `politicallymotivated` report of the JIT as previously he had stopped them from using his right of challenging the admissibility of the petition.

Similarly, the participants also requested the prime minister to allow them to respond to the opponents in the same tone which they had been using against them. They were of the opinion that they had already shown leniency, but now time had come that they should adopt an `aggressive posture` to give a befitting reply to the opponents who had been demanding PM Sharif`s resignation in the wake of the `controversial` JIT report.

When asked on what grounds they intended to attacl( the JIT report, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Law Barrister Zafarullah Khan told Dawn that their lawyers were still scrutinising the voluminous report. Although the prime minister expressed the desire that they should file the petition before Monday, he allowed them to take more time if they were not able to prepare a proper and appropriate response to the JIT report containing serious allegations against the Sharif family, he said.

In reply to a question, he said they had not yet decided if one legal team would plead the case or different counsel would defend different respondents, including the sons and daughter of the prime minister.

Barrister Zafaraullah claimed that it seemed that the report had been written by some ghost writers, which was evident from the fact that at many places in the report, a sentence `Did we ask this question? If not delete it` had also been printed.

Similarly, senior counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, who is expected to spearhead the challenge on behalf of the Sharif family before the Supreme Court, when contacted, said it was too early to point out any legal infirmity since he still had to go through the entire report that consisted of 10 volumes.

A number of lawyers believe that the PML-N can at the first place even challenge the court`s powers to constitute the JIT, instead of a commission a right the party had not used at the time of formation of the JIT.

Advocate Muhammad Akram Sheikh was of the opinion that if the JIT report was examined on the touchstone of Order 32 Rule 1 to 8 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980, only a commission, and not a JIT, could be appointed by the apex court and that too without any police power. A JIT could be formed only in cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act, he said.

This opinion was endorsed by another senior lawyer who, on condition of anonymity, said the apex court, while hearing a constitutional petition, could not order appointing a JIT for criminal inquiry since proceedings under Article 184(3) of the Constitution were inquisitorial but not adversarial. Inquisitorial procee dings were never criminal in nature, he hastened to explain.

He wondered how the JIT could question the existence of Gulf Steels in the UAE when a tripartite agreement signed by the parties bore the signature of the then Emir of Dubai, Rashid Al Makhtoom. On this point alone, he said, the report could be challenged in the apex court.

The senior lawyer also expressed his surprise over the JIT`s request for keeping thedocuments containing mutual legal assistance with different countries secret. He was of the view that only this part of the report would reveal which documents the JIT had found and which were still missing.

Likewise, he said, the JIT had transgressed its mandate by suggesting to the Supreme Court to open the Hudabiya Paper Mills case which had earlier been quashed by the Lahore High Court.

Speaking at a news conference soon after the consultative meeting, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and PM`s adviser Zafarullah Khan alleged that the JIT had violated the mandate given to it by the Supreme Court and carried out its proceedings to fulfil some political agenda.

Mr Dar asked the opposition parties to show patience and wait for the Supreme Court`s decision because the JIT report was not a final word in the Panama Papers case.

`There are significant gaps in the report, as much as we have seen it. There are photocopies [included in the report], some of which are not signed and which the JIT itself asks the Supreme Court to determine whether they hold any evidentiary value.

The minister rejected the allegations of tax evasion and money laundering levelled against him by the JIT. Recounting his experience with the JIT on July 3, he claimed that he was shocked to hear from the JIT that his tax returns from 1981 to 2002 had not been provided to it by the Federal Board of Revenue.

The minister said he had told the JIT members that he would take disciplinary action against those who had not provided the required information. He said he later provided the required documents to the investigators the same evening and he had the receipt from the JIT.

Mr Dar claimed that all his wealth could be traced and his statements audited. He also gave details of his charity work and criticised the JIT for forcing him to disclose his charity work under which he had been running an orphanage with 92 children, besides running a foundation to assist the poor in getting health and education services.

He alleged that by re-opening the Hudaiblya case, the JIT members had committed contempt of those 13 judges who had already quashed the case.

Saad Rafique said they believed that a JIT consisting of six people could not do so much work in just 60 days, even after working for 24 hours a day. He alleged that the strings of the JIT were being pulled by someone sitting abroad.

`The director of the Panama drama is sitting abroad and its actors are in the country. Imran Khan is the main player,` the minister said, without naming anyone. He said the JIT should have refrained from politics and partiality. He also refuted the JIT`s finding that the prime minister owned any offshore company.