Pakistani Supreme Court to Announce Panama Papers Case Ruling by Mid-April

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is set to announce verdict in the Panama Papers case, involving corruption allegations against family of country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, by mid-April, media reported on Thursday, citing sources.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to Geo News, the court ruling is highly awaited as it would define the fate of the prime minister.

Shairf's family came under fire after the leaked documents showed that his sons Hassan and Hussain, and daughter Maryam, owned at least three offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.

In late October 2016, the Supreme Court of Pakistan accepted petitions from a number of country's parties, in particular Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamhoori Watan Party, calling for a public hearing of the case. The petition was followed by mass anti-government rallies.

On February 23, five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court concluded hearing the Panama Papers case and reserved the final judgment. Earlier this week, media reports emerged that the announcement of the verdict might come soon.

The scandal over tax evasion schemes used by various financial institutions erupted in 2015, when some 11.5 million belonging to the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked by an anonymous source. The leaked papers contained information listing over 200,000 offshore entities used for tax evasion and fraud, and included personal information about individuals and public officials.