Sharif wants lawyers back

Sharif wants lawyers back
REUTERS

Karachi, March 1: A Pakistani court trying former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif adjourned on Wednesday until next Monday to allow him time to persuade his lawyers to end a protest boycott.

``I have full faith in you,'' Sharif told the anti-terrorism court judge, Rehmat Hussain Jafri. ``We will discuss with our lawyers and try to persuade them to come back.''

On Sunday two senior Sharif lawyers withdrew from the case and were joined on Monday by the rest of the legal team defending the deposed Prime Minister and his brother Shahbaz on charges that include hijacking, which could carry a death sentence.

The lawyers were protesting against the court's ruling that Sharif's statement to the court be made in private. The defence said the ruling was an attempt to gag Sharif but the prosecution said the deposed premier could divulge state secrets in an open court.

Jafri said he had not yet decided whether to release Sharif's statement and it was wrong to assume it would not be released.

``Whatever you will say will be recorded...The court has not yet decided whether it will be restricted,'' he said.

Jafri said an oral statement by the accused would first be recorded and later, partly or wholly, might be released to the public.

The official APP news agency reported separately that the government's anti-corruption arm, the National Accountability Bureau, sent a tax evasion complaint against Sharif and his close aide, Saifur Rehman, to an accountability court on Wednesday.

The case stems from the purchase of a Russian helicopter by Sharif in 1993, which the National Accountability Bureau said he hid in his income tax return.

The bureau has sweeping powers to arrest and hold people for 90 days without charge.