Panamagate case: Imran ‘happy, optimistic’ over Supreme Court proceedings

PTI chief hopes the case will reach its ‘logical conclusion’ soon

ISLAMABAD: Eager and attentive, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and his associates listened to the proceedings in the courtroom No-1 as the Supreme Court on Monday took on the government in an all-important Panama Papers case.

Imran – who has been facing criticism due to his ‘flopped’ plan to lock down Islamabad – later told the media that the PTI leadership was not only happy but optimistic that the case will reach its ‘logical conclusion’ soon.

‘Happy and optimistic’ he might be but when Imran entered the court’s premises on Monday morning, one could see him reciting some Tasbeeh on the fingers of his right hand – something that he did continuously even while inside the courtroom.

He sat in the front row with the PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haque sitting on his left hand and the party’s General Secretary Jehangir Khan Tareen on his right.

Imran looked a bit tense at the outset of the second hearing of the case – attentively listening to every single word uttered by the judges and Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt, who was representing the government.



However, when the judges declined to give an exact time as desired by the attorney general to present relevant documents before the bench and passed some observations not much favourable to the government, the situation changed.

Upon every such observation, the PTI MNA Shireen Mazari, who was sitting right behind Imran, would lean forward to whisper into his ear. In response, Imran would run his fingers through his hair, smile and look at the judges, hopefully.

The PTI chief continued to twist around in his seat passing smiles to his associates, and once gave the thumps-up to his legal team.

The situation further lightened, as Sheikh Rashid – who is also a party in the case – took the podium to present his case ‘in English’. As he started to speak one could hear chuckles inside the courtroom. During his speech, Imran also smiled many times while keeping his hand on his face.

As the proceedings drew to a close, Imran got up from his seat – a move followed by Tareen – and occupied a position right in the middle of his attorneys behind the rostrum and in front of the judges.

During the proceedings, judges had requested politicians to not address media inside the premises of the court and following the proceedings, neither the PML-N nor the PTI talked to the media gathered within the court.

Later, talking to media at Bani Gala, Imran referred to court’s observation that if needed the larger bench would itself pass a judgment without forming a judicial commission. “The court’s observation suggests that the case would not take too long to decide,” he said.

“The entire nation has become hostage to this crisis. It would be great if these judges decide the case without forming a commission as they have observed,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2016.