Sharifs try to impede the JIT proceedings.
Knowing too well that it was next to impossible to explain his contradictory statements about the money trail Hussain Nawaz was reluctant to face the JIT. Despite having received the summons he failed to appear before the investigating team on May 19. His next move was to delay the proceedings by questioning the integrity of two of the JIT’s members on frivolous grounds. Hussain failed to bring the relevant record on the next hearing and refused to answer questions on the pretext that the matter was sub judice after his having filed a petition before the Supreme Court for the replacement of the duo. He tried to dictate to the JIT by demanding that it must inform him what it wanted to enquire about three days ahead of the questioning. Further, it must not put questions regarding several issues during one interrogation session and it would be JIT’s responsibility to inform him beforehand what record it wanted him to bring.
Tariq Shafi complained that he was made to sit before the JIT for 13 hours at a stretch and was harassed by two members of the interrogation team who treated him in the most humiliating, arrogant and derogatory manner. Hard boiled eggs otherwise, the two feigned ignorance of the way interrogations are conducted in the country. Both hoped to be given special treatment on the basis of their wealth and connections. Hussain wanted to take his lawyer with him and the question paper leaked out to him before the examination. Both wanted that the interrogation sessions be transformed into social calls where questions were to be asked politely and there was no insistence on divulging the details that they did not want to reveal.
The Supreme Court set aside the objections raised by Tariq Shafi and Hussain Nawaz ordering the JIT to proceed apace. This has failed to satisfy the PMLN leaders who continue to call into question the impartiality of the JIT and the SC through insinuations. One of the PM’s close aides has said that justice should not only be done but seen to have been done. He also advised that the two members against whom Sharifs have reservations should voluntarily recuse themselves. On Sunday Marriyum Aurangzeb observed that the JIT could have waited for a day to let the Supreme Court bench adjudicate on the matter. Knowing well that the JIT has been ordered to finish its job within sixty days and a quarter of the time already consumed what they want in fact is to delay the report till the stipulated life period of the JIT is over.
