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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday bowed to opposition demands that he ask the chief justice to set up an independent commission to investigate offshore accounts linked to his family.
In a national address, he said he would accept the findings of the commission, which will look into links disclosed in the massive leak of documents from a Panama-based law firm.
Sharif's sons are among several politicians, business leaders and other celebrities referenced in millions of leaked documents from the law firm, Mossack Fonseca & Co., which detail how the wealthy avoid tax obligations.
Sharif had earlier said the investigation would be led by a retired judge, drawing fire from opposition politician Imran Khan and others, who demanded a commission established by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Sharif has denied any wrongdoing during his 30-year political career, saying the fact that he is serving a third term proves the nation has confidence in his "clean and transparent politics."
He dismissed allegations of corruption, saying they had been investigated long ago and that no wrongdoing had been found, even during the rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who had overthrown Sharif in a 1999 military coup.
"We believe in uprooting corruption and providing good governance for the people," Sharif said, adding that his critics want him to "respond to baseless allegations instead of serving the masses."
Elsewhere in Pakistan on Friday, gunmen riding a motorcycle shot and killed a lawmaker from Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Bakht Zamin, an area police officer.
He said Sardar Suran Singh, from the country's Sikh minority, was heading home when he was killed. Singh was an adviser to the provincial chief minister for minority affairs.
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