Nawaz’s former lawyer to plead Imran’s case

PTI to mainly challenge amendment to definition of benamidar, other clauses of NAO

ISLAMABAD:

 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has engaged Khawaja Haris to challenge the recent amendments in National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) in the Supreme Court, the same lawyer who once defended his bitter rival Nawaz Sharif in an accountability court.

Senior PTI leaders have confirmed to The Express Tribune on Tuesday that Khawaja Haris would file the PTI’s petition against the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill 2021 under Article 184 (3) of Constitution.

It is learnt that the PTI would mainly question the substitution of Section 9 of the NAO where amendments had been made related to definition of benamidar as well as restriction on investigation agencies to investigate the bank balance of an account holder on the date of initiation of inquiry.

Haris has been appearing on behalf of the Sharif family for the last two decades. His father Khawaja Sultan was the counsel of former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif in the plane hijacking case in 2000.

Haris had assisted his father in that case. Later, he became the lawyer of the Sharif brothers after their return in Pakistan in 2008. Haris was also engaged by Nawaz to challenge his conviction in the hijacking case and won acquittal by the Supreme Court.

During the PML-N government in Punjab, Khawaja Haris was appointed as the advocate general but he resigned after two years. Also during the PML-N regime, Haris was engaged in cases related to the Signal-Free Corridor project as well as the Orange Line Train projects.

During the Panamagate case hearing, the Sharif family initially did not include Haris in the legal team. When a majority judgment of the apex court on April 26, 2017 constituted the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) Haris was engaged.

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When the then JIT had submitted its report before the Supreme Court implementation bench, Haris raised questions on the material collected by the team. Later Nawaz was disqualified by the bench under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution.

After disqualifying Nawaz, the bench also referred the matter to the National Accountability Bureau for filing reference against the Sharif family. During the trial, Haris had also appeared on behalf of Nawaz before the accountability court.

When Nawaz and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, were convicted in the Avenfield case, Haris had challenged the accountability court’s verdict in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The IHC had suspended the conviction of Nawaz and Maryam, while the appeals were still pending.

Though, it is learnt, Khawaja Haris is no more part of Sharif family’s legal team, some elements in the PML-N believed that his appearance in court on behalf of PTI Chairman Imran Khan would be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
A senior government functionary expressed surprise over the engagement of Khawaja Haris to plead the

PTI case. He told The Express Tribune that question about his conflict of interest might arise in this case.

Haris drifted away from the Sharif family when Azam Nazeer Tarar became closer to them during the last couple of years. A section in the PML-N contended that Haris’ differences with the Sharif family arose before the last elections of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

Even election for the office-bearers of the SCBA, Haris had opposed Tarar group’s presidential candidate Ahsan Bhoon, the incumbent SCBA president. At present, Tarar is the sitting law minister and the Sharif family heavily relied on him for their cases, party leaders said.

A source close to Haris said that the senior lawyer had no political affiliation and he was engaged by various political leaders in difficult times – the Sharif family, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Anwar Saifullah Khan – and now Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that PTI is waiting for the formal notification regarding the enactment of the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill 2021. The initial draft of the petition, PTI sources said, had been prepared.

The sources said that the petition would challenge the substitution of Section 9 of the NAO wherein amendments had been made to the definition of benamidar, as well as the amendments relating to investigation of bank balance of account holder.

“If these amendments [the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill 2021] are enforced then the accused persons will have no need to hire counsels to defend them,” said a PTI member.

Senior lawyers believe that the composition of bench to hear the PTI petition will be of significance. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial has already given his mind that they would examine amendments to the NAB law and they could not ignore minimising the role of the graft-buster.