Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Due to severe criticism among PTI’s circles regarding Hamid Khan’s performance in previous proceeding of the Panamagate case, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan sidelined Hamid Khan from the case for the time being, sources said.

Sources further said that Hamid Khan will now assist the legal team in evidence related matters, but outside the court room. A source privy to the development told Daily Times that the most likely new head would be Zaheeruddin Babar Awan or Aitazaz Ahsan. The PTI Chairman is now considering the above mentioned names, sources further said. However, the final decision is to be made after Imran Khan returns to Pakistan from London.

It is pertinent to mention here that both considered legal heads are senators and belong to Pakistan People Party while Aitazaz Ahsan is leader of the opposition in Senate. However, Hamid Khan denied that he himself refused to further plead the ongoing Panamagate Case, something that a statement released by the PTI’s central media wing appeared to directly contradicting.

The statement issued by the media wing said that the senior lawyer informed Imran Khan about his decision on a phone call. Hamid Khan said that it would be impossible for him as a part of the Panamagate proceeding because of the ‘media trial’ for the last 48 hours. The development derived after Hamid Khan came under severe criticism for failing to impress a five judge larger bench of the top court in pleading PTI’s case.

During the arguments of Hamid Khan in the previous proceeding, the larger bench made clear to him that such type of arguments would not be a substitute for proof. Hamid Khan, for more than 2 hours, had narrated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three contradictory speeches, which were delivered on television and in the National Assembly. However, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali asked if the court could, merely on the basis of these contradictory statements of the prime minister, conclude that the London flats were purchased through black money.

Justice Shaikh Azmat Saeed, a member of larger bench, had expressed disappointment and observed that PTI’s counsel was doing politics. But the PTI’s counsel without paying heed to the judge’s point argued that the premier’s first speech to the nation was vague wherein he had not discussed the properties and investment in Dubai. The top court then asked the PTI legal team to come up with solid evidences to establish the direct link between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and flats situated in London.