ISLAMABAD: After three weeks of discussions, the Sharif family is still indecisive whether or not to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s April 20 judgment in the Panamagate case. They will not be able to do so after May 20.
Top legal experts consulted by the family advised them not to challenge the verdict by the five-judge larger bench of the apex court, fearing further complications.
Sources told The Express Tribune that most legal experts believe that the Sharif family could experience more legal complications, including the disqualification of the prime minister.
Sources said that Khawaja Haris, who is assisting the family before the Joint Investigation Team [JIT], had also advised them to exercise caution in this regard and seek legal opinion from other experts.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, Salman Akram Raja and Shahid Hamid, who represented the Sharif family in Panamagate case, recommended them not to contest the apex court’s decision.
Currently, Salman Akram Raja, who represented the PM’s sons, is aboard.
One member of the legal team had even opposed the very idea of approaching the apex court for expunging certain remarks by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.
Citing the verdict in the National Police Foundation case, a senior PML-N lawyer said that the bench, led by former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had given certain remarks against former MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan and ordered the Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] to probe a land scam. Later, Aqeel successfully cleared himself from FIA’s inquiry. Similarly, he conjectured, the PM and his family could clear themselves before the JIT.
He believed that if a review petition was filed, it would give undue importance to the minority judges’ remarks, which otherwise had no legal importance.
“In another case, one Lahore High Court judge had approached the SC for expunging certain paras of a judgment, but the court wrote something more against him.”
It is learnt that the Sharif family was focusing on JIT so that they could be exonerated.
Former Additional Attorney-General Tariq Mahmood Khokhar believes that the minority judges’ remarks “cannot realistically be expected to be expunged”.
ISLAMABAD: The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Panamagate case has decided to send a detailed questionnaire to the Al Thani family of Qatar regarding the offshore properties of the Sharif family in London.
Sources told The Express Tribune that a detailed questionnaire would be delivered to the Qatari royal family next week. The six-member JIT has started consultations with the Foreign Office given the possibility of two members of the JIT visiting Doha for the purpose.
Earlier in the day, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) submitted a complete record related to the Sharif family.
According to the sources, the JIT will also send a questionnaire to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s cousin Tariq Shafi.
Formed by the Supreme Court, the JIT had held its first informal meeting on Monday at the Federal Judicial Academy, which has been declared as the JIT’s official secretariat
