ISLAMABAD - By pushing apex court-formed Joint Investigation Team (JIT) into controversy, the ruling family is probably trying to kill more than just two birds with one stone.

By pointing fingers at the credibility and independence of some of the members of the JIT, which is probing the Sharif family assets, the PML-N is trying to bring it under pressure for securing a favourable result and gain an advantageous political position.

Also, in case of any adverse findings against the prime minister or some of his family members, the JIT bashing could be used to carve out an escape route for the party and the directly affected persons.

The condemnation of the probe team, which is going on from the day one, seems to be quite consistent and systematic. Doubts have been raised on its fairness and neutrality on one pretext or the other. It has been given such suggestive labels as “a butcher’s shop”, while a parallel was also drawn with Bond movies.

Whenever the foul utterances are taken notice of by any quarter, the party and its top leadership continently distance them from the loudmouths, calling their outbursts ‘personal views’ – as has recently happened in case of Senator Nehal Hashmi.

On face of it, the ruling party expressed its fullest confidence in the superior judiciary and assured compliance with the JIT probe. But from the very beginning, it raised a series of allegations – right from the conduct and composition of the JIT down to the personal credentials of some of its members.

And now, the PML-N has also started raising questions about the JIT jurisdiction and the law under which it was operating.

Legal and constitutional experts said that the Sharif family should have raised the objections in the start of the trial by the apex court and when the JIT was formed. As they had not questioned the maintainability of the case at the SC, and also did not object to the formation of the JIT, their concerns at this juncture are irrelevant and out of place, they added.

They further said that “the JIT was directly working under the supervision of the apex court and the final decision on the probe by the JIT would also be made by the court, such objections therefore would have no legal consequence.”

It’s not just the ruling party which has rendered the six-member JIT to negative criticism. Initially, the opposition parties too dubbed it a “toothless body”, which could not probe the family of the sitting chief executive of the country.

A second objection was on the in-camera investigations, as some of the opposition parties – especially the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – wanted the enquiry to be open for the sake of transparency.

Before the start of the probe, it was generally assumed that the PML-N leadership would definitely get off the hook on the premise that how the JIT officers, who are directly or indirectly in the subordination of the Chief Executive, could probe him or his family members, and that was the main reason behind the demand of the prime minister’s resignation before initiation of the JIT probe.

Initially, when the ruling party started hue and cry over the investigation process it was generally presumed that the PML-N was doing this just to establish the credibility of the probe body, which until then was being thought to be a toothless body – not powerful enough to produce anything concrete against the Sharifs. But the public perception changed as the probe progressed.

According to legal and constitutional experts the present JIT is quite different from those formed in the past as: (1) it is directly working under the supervision of the apex court; (2) is submitting fortnightly progress reports before the SC; (3) have a definite timeframe [of two months] to complete the task; and (4) is working under an informal yet well defined terms of reference based on the 13 specific questions framed by the Supreme Court in its April 20 verdict on Panama Papers case.

The ruling PML-N started feeling the heat when the JIT began gruelling investigation sessions with the sons of Prime Minister Sharif and others associated with the probe – including premier’s cousin Mian Tariq Shafi and National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed.

The Sharif family had raised objections on some of the members of the committee but the same were ruled out by the three-member apex court bench, which observed that it would take action against these persons only if found necessary.

Now some of the party leaders under a well-thought-out plan have started questioning the jurisdiction of the JIT and the law under which the Sharif family is being “mistreated” – apparently to prepare a ground for playing the “victimisation” card in case of an adverse decision or a political calamity.