Sharif family expresses full confidence on legal team

Maryam Nawaz denies report the PML-N was unhappy with performance of Salman Akram Raja

ISLAMABAD: The Sharif family has shown full confidence on its legal team especially Salman Akram Raja, who appeared on behalf of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons – Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz – in the Panamagate case.

In a Twitter message, prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday denied the report that the ruling family was unhappy with performance of Raja. Salman Akram Raja's professional credentials are indisputable, she wrote.

Under the Supreme Court Rules 1980, the parties cannot replace their counsel in review cases. Likewise, Sharif family cannot engage new legal team for filing review petition against the top court’s verdict in Panamagate case.



Meanwhile, advocate Akram Sheikh – who had earlier represented PM’s sons before the court – has revealed that he did everything in Panamagate case was on instructions of his clients and nothing was done contrary to any such instructions.

Regarding production of a letter by Qatar’s prince Hammad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber Al-Thani, he said Sharif family fully owned the letter throughout the proceedings even after change of their counsel and supplemented it with another letter by the Qatari prince.

“I advised my clients professionally with which sometimes they agreed. Being their counsel, I was bound to act on their instructions regardless of my advice or opinion.

“I am bound by the rules of counsel-client privilege, therefore, suffice it to say at this stage that I cannot go into details of the matter unless my clients waive the privilege,” said Sheikh in his statement.

Some legal experts suspect that it can be a deliberate strategy of the ruling party’s legal team to put blame on some of its members which represented Sharifs before the larger bench.



They said the legal team had provided all necessary documents to the court but a few members had abstained from submitting some documents during the hearing.

The PTI lawyer Chaudhry Faisal Hussain said the Sharif family appeared to improve their case by creating faked documents with the passage of time. “The PML-N leadership is scapegoating their counsels. It did the same in the past when it replaced Salman Aslam Butt,” he said.