The Lahore High Court has turned down a request for summoning 64 politicians, including the current and former rulers and their families, following a petition questioning their assets outside the country. On Wednesday, the court hearing a petition filed by Javed Iqbal Jafree said the request was "premature and unnecessary" at this stage and told the attorney general to assist it on April 25.
The petitioner has claimed that the respondents and individuals had transferred at least $400 billion to foreign countries through money laundering and by doing so politicians had caused a huge loss to the national exchequer. The respondents included Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his wife Kulsoom Nawaz and son Hussain Nawaz, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and his former wife Jemima Goldsmith, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his wife, former president Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Faryal Talpur, former president retired general Pervez Musharraf, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and his predecessor, Rehman Malik, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Malik Riaz Hussain of Bahria Town, former court chief justices Khwaja Muhammad Sharif and Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan, Asma Jahangir, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and his wife Bushra Aitzaz.