Imran Khan asked Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down in the wake of the Panama leaks. (File photo)
Mounting pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over the 'Panama Papers' issue, opposition leader Imran Khan today demanded that the Pakistan Premier step down and the government constitute a Chief Justice-led panel to probe alleged stashing of wealth abroad.
Mr Khan, who is the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, addressed the nation through private TV channels from outside his residence in an Islamabad suburb.
"The commission should also include white-collar-crime experts and an audit firm that follows the trail of money to determine where it leads," Mr Khan said.
He asked Mr Sharif to step down in the wake of the Panama leaks which stated that Sharif's two sons -- Hussian and Hassan -- and his daughter Maryam owned offshore companies.
Mr Khan alleged that the wealth of his children was actually the money illegally transferred by Mr Sharif out of Pakistan.
He said that he would announce his future plan of action on April 24 when he will address a big gathering in Islamabad on his party's 20th foundation day.
"We give you time till April 24 to form a commission on these lines. If the rest of the world is investigating, we will give them the opportunity to take action. I will come out with a future course of action on April 24," he said.
Mr Khan also warned of protests like those in 2014 when he protested for more than four months in Islamabad against alleged fraud in elections of 2013.
Mr Khan vowed that this time he would lead a protest and sit-in outside the Sharif family residence in Raiwind, near Lahore.
"The (previous) dharna (sit-in) had to be abandoned because of an incident (attack on school in Peshawar) but I promise my countrymen I will not back down this time. If need be we will go to Raiwind and stage sit-ins there," the cricketer-turned-politician said.
Government has dismissed his allegations and challenged him to protest wherever he liked.
"He can launch protest but people have not forgotten what he did during the previous sit-in. The dharna-2 will also fail like dharna-1," Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said.
A massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents has reportedly exposed the secret offshore dealings of around 140 political figures globally.
The vast stash of records, covering around 40 years, was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
According to the documents, three of Mr Sharif's four children -- Maryam, Hasan and Hussain -- "were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies".