PML-N lawyers upset over govt’s aggressive media policy

‘Undeclared’ spokespersons annoying the Supreme Court, say analysts

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers representing the ruling party in courts are upset over the government’s aggressive media policy toward the judiciary in connection with the Sharif family’s alleged offshore properties.

Relations between the government and the Supreme Court have been tense for the past couple of months, analysts believe.

Judges are visibly perturbed over the government’s media campaign targeting the judiciary and the joint investigation team (JIT) carrying out the probe. Their annoyance could be gauged by their remarks during recent hearings of the implementation bench on the Panama Papers case.

Even the three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, has pointed out that eight persons were targeting the Supreme Court and JIT on the media.



On the last date of hearing, the bench urged Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali to stop the ‘media trial’ and ‘media circus’ against the judges and JIT.

In this situation, legal aides of the Sharif family are unhappy over the manner the family is defending its case in the media via a team of ‘undeclared’ spokespersons.

“Our party leaders must realise that there is no nexus between judges and the establishment as is being portrayed by certain elements [on the media],” a Punjab-based senior PML-N lawyer told The Express Tribune.

He also agreed that the government’s policy to leak certain news against the JIT and the Supreme Court, such as the purported Whatsapp call by the top court registrar, was damaging the Sharif family.



Another PML-N leader, with judicial background, said the tense situation should be urgently defused before the JIT finalises its report on July 10.

The Express Tribune has learnt that the attorney general has contacted a close aide of the prime minister, who played a key role in devising the government’s media policy, asking him to stop controversial statements targeting judges.

Complying with the court order, the attorney general also wrote a letter to the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), asking him to share full record with the JIT without any further delay.

If, he said, the FBR did not have the record, they should give cogent reasons in this regard.

Sources said Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif also initiated steps to cool down the tense situation.



A member of the Sharif family’s legal team said backchannel contacts had also been initiated to end the tense environment between the Supreme Court and the government.

But he maintained that these backchannel contacts could only be useful if the government changed its media policy, adding that retired judges could also be asked to help end the situation.

Another section of the government believed that they should continue the aggressive media policy to augment pressure on the judiciary and the JIT.

A senior PML-N lawyer, Zafar Ali Shah, believes that the government’s media policy toward the judiciary would severely affect the PM and his family.



He lamented that most ‘undeclared spokespersons’ of the government had been part of the Musharraf regime and they did not realise the delicate situation.

Legal experts believe that the same implementation bench will examine the final JIT report for passing the final judgment. But it remains to be seen if the Sharif family reposed trust in the same bench or call for setting up a larger bench once the final JIT report is submitted.