ISLAMABAD: A three-judge of the Supreme Court is all set to examine tomorrow (Monday) the Joint Investigation Team (JIT)’s damning report on the murky offshore business dealings of the Sharif family, but the ruling family has yet to come up with a clear legal strategy.
Only a day before the Supreme Court hearing, the Sharif family contacted members of their previous legal team that appeared before a five-judge larger bench in the Panamagate case. However, none of its members is available to plead the case.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Makhdoom Ali Khan, who had represented Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the Panamagate hearings, is engaged in London and Washington and will not be available for the next few weeks.
“Similarly, Shahid Hamid, the counsel for Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Maryam Nawaz and her husband Safdar, is also on general adjournment till August 10 as he is also abroad.
“The family has contacted Salman Akram Raja, but it is yet to be confirmed that he would appear on behalf of Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz on Monday,” a source said.
However, Raja is also scheduled to fly abroad next week. The family has also contacted senior lawyer Khalid Anwar but surprisingly he has not consented to representing any of its member.
Sources claim the family has started contacting its previous legal team on the advice of Khawaja Haris, who is supervising the legal strategy in connection with the JIT report and he is continuously in touch with Premier Sharif and his family for the last two months.
Haris has advised separate counsel for each respondent and even offered to withdraw his services if the previous team showed willingness to appear before the court. However, the family wants to retain him as Sharif’s counsel.
Senior PML-N lawyers wonder why the ruling family is contacting other counsels at the eleventh hours, instead of relying on Haris. “I have already advised the family that no one knows the case better than Khawaja Haris and they should rely on him,” said a member of the previous legal team.
Another PML-N’s legal wizard said the Sharif family should have known from day one that they would need a counsel for every respondent as Haris could not represent every one of them technically.
“This is rather their apathy that the case is listed for Monday (tomorrow) but no objections have been filed yet. Does this mean the prime minister and his family have accepted the report?” he wondered.
The lawyer called it ‘a huge faux pas’ that objections on the JIT report were not filed on Saturday, adding that it was not only a legal but more importantly a political failure as they needed to show the people and the world about their point of view and grievances against the report.
However, this is not the first time the Sharif family’s legal strategy has been criticised by the party’s lawyers.
Firstly, the family was represented by Salman Aslam Butt and Sheikh Akram. Later, both were replaced by Makhdoom Ali Khan, Salman Akram Raja and Shahid Hamid. Khawaja Haris was the only counsel, who has assisted the family before the JIT.
However, it is expected that the final strategy will be devised in today’s (Sunday) meeting in which they will decide whether they should seek time from the court or file objections to the JIT report, which have already been drafted by Haris
In a related development, the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) office has submitted transcripts of the speeches of three PML-N leaders – Khawaj Saad Rafique, Talal Chaudhry and Asif Karmani – who allegedly targeted the JIT.
The AGP office has also submitted details of the value of advertisements, which have been given to TV channels since April. It is learnt that Geo TV has got Rs23,028,320 worth advertisements during the said time.
PM’s shunning public gatherings
Since July 10, when the JIT report was submitted in the Supreme Court, the premier has avoided attending any public event and is focusing on internal huddles and party meet-ups to map out the future strategy.
A number of public gatherings, including those being organised in connection with Pakistan’s 70th Independence Day have been postponed following Sharif’s decision to keep a low-profile as far as public events are concerned, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Instead, Sharif is devoting most of his time to consultative sessions with his political and legal aides to deal with the challenges posed by the JIT report amidst resonating calls for him to step down.
Sources told The Express Tribune that some senior leaders of the PML-N have advised Sharif to avoid public gatherings for the next few days and wait till the apex court resumes hearing of Panamagate case and then formulate a strategy depending upon how the proceedings of the case unfold.
Sources said top PML-N leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Defence Production Minister Rana Tanvir Ahmad Khan are not in favour of developing hostility with the judiciary.
They believe that any aggressive public statement from Sharif about the judiciary could end up creating more problems for the ruling party.
On the other hand, another powerful group of aides, including Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafique, Ishaq Dar and Ahsan Iqbal, are of the view that Sharif should mobilise public in the face of ongoing crisis.
The group, sources said, insist that the Sharif family’s legal team submit ‘strong’ objections against the JIT report in the apex court.
However, the PM’s legal wizards are concerned that if the top court shoots down the objections raised by the respondents, the Sharif family would hardly be left with any workable option in its defence.
(With additional reporting by Sardar Sikander) Express Tribune
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