Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday hired a new legal team to represent him in the accountability court, after Khawaja Haris and his team recused themselves from the case in protest.

Advocate Jahangir Jadoon, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) legal wing, will now represent Nawaz in multiple cases.

During the hearing on Thursday, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and her husband Capt (retd) Safdar’s counsel Amjad Parvez did not show up in court, citing ill-health.

The court then set June 19 for presentation of final arguments in the Avenfield reference case.

Earlier, Jadoon submitted the power of attorney in all three references, while also claiming that Nawaz was still in touch with Haris and was trying to convince the lawyer to return to the case.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi expressed his concerns over Parvez’s absence, arguing that Jadoon was well aware of the case and could present the arguments in Pervez’s place. In response, Jadoon said that he was only submitting Maryam and Nawaz’s exemption plea for Thursday’s hearing.

On June 10, Khwaja Haris had recused himself from the cases, stating that he and his team could not perform under such pressure from the apex court. He said the Supreme Court had instructed the accountability court to wrap up the proceedings in a month and to conduct hearings on Saturday. “The court can’t do justice to the case under this pressure,” Haris maintained.

Nawaz, Maryam leave for London

Nawaz and Maryam left for London to spend the Eid break with Kulsoom Nawaz, who is under treatment for cancer at a hospital in the British capital.

On Sunday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had remarked that the former premier along with his daughter could visit his Kulsoom Nawaz in London.

Media reports on Thursday claimed that after Kulsoom Nawaz’s condition deteriorated recently she was once again admitted to the hospital. Doctors, who have been doing regular checkups of Kulsoom Nawaz, had advised that she should be hospitalised for further treatment.

Kulsoom Nawaz underwent surgery in 2017 to remove lymph nodes after she was diagnosed with throat cancer. In April, her medical reports indicated that her health had worsened after her throat cancer began to spread to the rest of her body. On May 25, her health was said to have improved following medical treatment for throat cancer in London.

Nawaz and Maryam are scheduled to return to the country after spending Eid with Kulsoom Nawaz.

Published in Daily Times, June 15^th 2018.