Barrister Ali Zafar says JIT may have already finalised its report by now
PML-N minister Khawaja Asif flanked by Khawaja Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Saturday that if the Qatari royal was not included in the investigation then the JIT’s report will not be accepted. They also asked the probe body to make all the audio video recordings public.
Pakistan Today reached out to leading lawyers of the country and asked about the legal implications of PML-N presser on JIT and its submission of final report on Monday.
Former SCBA president Barrister Ali Zafar was of the view that the ministers’ conference has certainly attacked the JIT and also indirectly and partially challenged the Supreme Court decision. ‘It seems to be a reaction rather than based on any legal expediency and I think no substantial legal defense has been put forward by them,’ he said.
When asked will the press conference affect in any way the Monday hearing in Supreme Court, Ali said that JIT may have finalised its report by now, so this was not going to affect that report. ‘It seems that the JIT report will be against the ruling family and that is why they held such a reactionary sort of conference. Barrister Ali, when asked whether some part of the press conference was tantamount to contempt of court, said that some parts certainly felt as if they planned to defy the court.
Ali ruled out any contempt action as he believed Supreme Court realised that it was a political case and a political parties needed to appease their voters as well.
Notable criminal lawyer and Pakistan Bar Council Member Supreme Court Azam Nazeer Tarar advocate was of the view that there was no legal implication of press conference by PML-N ministers. ‘Joint Investigation Team is a wholly legal affair and will not be affected by such statements. The court is all powerful to preside over this,’ he said. Tarar ruled that it was about time that we would have matured, ‘such things prove that our legal system hasn’t matured. As a mature system wouldn’t have cared for such careless statements,’ he said.
When asked the JIT will submit its report on Monday as usual, Tarar replied that the goddess of justice was blind and did not differentiate. ‘The cases are decided in technicalities, not moralities. The court will decide as per the record before it and not by the vague notions of right and wrong,’ he concluded.
Interestingly, the statement by Khawaja Asif is a complete U-turn from the plea entered by Khwaja Haris advocate, counsel of Hussain Nawaz Sharif on June 12, 2017 when JIT submitted its second fortnightly report before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
When the petitioner’s counsel objected to the recording of JIT proceedings, the bench observed that there was no bar on recording proceedings, adding that video recording was also carried out to produce transcripts.
Barrister Ali Zafar, former President SCBA has said that the allegations, complaints by four ministers have no legal status as of now. ‘However, if the Supreme Court wants to take them up, it can hear them,’ he said.
PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan was of the view that the four ministers in their presser were not pressure tactics or aimed to threaten opposition or JIT. ‘With their statements they’ve directly attacked the Supreme Court’.