LAHORE – Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said justice given in haste would be similar to making a mockery of legal requirements, the law, human rights and judicial norms.
Hours after his legal counsel Khawaja Haris rescued himself from appearing before the courts in the NAB references filed against the Sharif family, the ousted premier held a presser in Lahore.
The elder Sharif said a situation was being created where he was now being denied legal counsel as well, adding that no other defendant in a serious case has appeared 100 times before the court.
The PML-N supremo asked, “Is it more important to complete the legal formalities or to announce the verdict before the elections?”
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Sharif said it was impossible for any lawyer to review thousands of pages of case files to satisfy the conditions in order to represent him properly.
“It is impossible for a lawyer to take on a case at this stage and begin arguments the next day. Such an environment is being created that I am deprived of a legal counsel as well,” he maintained.
Moreover, he expressed if a verdict before July 25 elections was a ‘need’ or a ‘compulsion’ then do it.
Earlier on Monday, in a surprising move, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s longtime counsel in corruption cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khawaja Harris, distanced himself from representing his client in the cases.
During the hearing of Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference, Harris said that he has taken the decision of not representing Nawaz in the cases as the Supreme Court did not accept his stance.
On Sunday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had directed the accountability court to announce its verdict on all three corruption references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family within a month. During the hearing, Haris had petitioned for completing the trial in six weeks.
