Politicians are all the same

Politicians in SC are friendly, chatty and sarcastic, and share banter and laugh off on each other’s remarks

ISLAMABAD: Firebrand politicians -- either from the government side or on the other side of the aisle -- are familiar faces on our TV screens thanks to an unending stream of talk-shows on the Panamagate scandal. They can be seen waving fists in triumph and fuming with anger at each other.

But once inside the Supreme Court, one encounters an entirely different picture of them. There they are friendly, chatty and sarcastic, and share banter and laugh off on each other’s remarks.

Since the Supreme Court resumed proceedings in the post-Joint Investigation Team report, exchanges of smiles and handshakes between members of the government side and those in the opposition, including the PTI and the PPP, have become a new norm.

One can see PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood and PML-N’s Daniyal Aziz sharing pleasantries in the lobby before the start of the hearing. But before live TV cameras after attending court proceedings, they would be literally at each other’s throats. This is also true of PTI’s new entrant, Noor Alam Khan, who was also sharing banter with hot-headed Abid Sher Ali right in the courtroom.



On Tuesday, Ali was welcomed at the entry gate to the Supreme Court by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah along with Qamar Zaman Kaira.

“Let’s go together, lest people throw rotten eggs and tomatoes on you,” they quipped while hugging him. Ali, who is also minister of state for water and power, has been a staunch critic of the PTI and the PPP in the National Assembly and often used remarks that had to be expunged by the speaker.

Wednesday proved to be another tough day for Tariq Hasan, the counsel for Ishaq Dar. In the first half of the proceedings, he was literally jostled by the onslaught of questions coming from the three-judge bench. The second half of the hearing however gave Hasan some reprieve and shared several lighter moments.

It seems Hasan came to the courtroom unprepared and almost failed to roll with the punches, with back-to-back counter questions from the judges for more than one hour. This made the government representatives grim-faced and composed. While Dar’s counsel was being grilled, Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rasheed was amused.

The serious-looking faces smiled and laughed in unison when after being cornered for poor replies, Dar’s counsel nervously said: “I am worried on behalf of my client.”

To which head of the bench, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan quoted PTI’s counsel Naeem Bukhari who, during the hearing of the case once told a journalist, that “a counsel never loses a case but his client”.

As the hearing was concluded for the day, politicians as usual rushed towards podiums where TV cameras were fixed, jostling, pushing and shoving each other in an effort to get the right place.



Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Dr Sirajul Haq was the first to reach the podium placed within the court premises to talk to the media while PTI representatives took to the rostrum outside the court. Later, government representatives also reached and talked to the media criticising the PTI and its “useless act of wasting time of the nation”.

On Thursday (today) the counsel for the PM’s siblings Salman Akram Raja will start arguing in the case and Dar’s counsel is also expected to do so while PTI’s Bukhari is also likely to rebut the arguments of Haris, Raja and Hasan.