ISLAMABAD: A special three-judge Supreme Court bench resumed its hearing on Thursday to hear the arguments of the counsel of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children on the findings of the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

Three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, is hearing the arguments of Advocate Salman Akram Raja, the legal counsel for the PM’s children.

Justice Sheikh Azmat came down hard on the defense counsel for leaking these documents to media before placing them before the court and said, “You released the documents to the media, you better give arguments in front of media. A dais was placed outside the court, go deliver arguments there.”

To which, the counsel said he was not aware of how these documents came to be in possession of media.

Akram argued that the JIT based its findings on a letter from the UAE’s Ministry of Law and Justice and it did not even bother to confront Hussain Nawaz with the content of the letter. It did not admit the verified documents provided to it by his clients, he added.

To which, the judges observed that the JIT had approached the UAE government to verify the documents submitted by Hussain Nawaz and PM’s cousin Tariq Shafi, which later said the notary stamps on the papers were fake.

The counsel read out the UAE government’s letter and pointed out that it was stated there was no customs record to show machinery and scarp was moved from Abu Dhabi to Saudi Arabia. However, he added, the shipment record was available, which the JIT refused to accept.

The defense counsel submitted 169-page long written objections on the JIT findings about his clients along with certain documents, including a new letter from Qatari prince Hamad Bin Jassam in the court. Documents included those acquired from Abu Dhabi customs to show that how scrap and machinery of the Gulf Steel Mills moved from Dubai after it went bankrupt.