Asma collapsed during phone call with Nawaz

LAHORE: Asma Jahangir had agreed to represent Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry in a contempt case during her last phone call with PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and Advocate Azam Tarrar, The News has learnt.

Sources revealed that the late human rights champion and veteran lawyer Asma Jahangir was talking with Azam Tarrar in the presence of Nawaz Sharif who had just talked to her on the same call during which she had the fatal stroke. When Jahangir abruptly stopped talking on phone after letting out a scream which worried Nawaz and all the lawyers present in the meeting, Nawaz kept on calling back to know what happened. However, nobody received any of some 25 plus calls dialled.

Later, when she had just been declared dead in hospital, her attendants took the call and told the PML-N leader that she had died. Thus Nawaz was the first one to know about her death. The PML-N was trying to engage Asma Jahangir to defend Talal in the court ever since he was told by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to submit his reply in the contempt of court case within one week on February 5. The request to defend Talal was put up for Asma’s consideration a couple of days back and she had said that she would think about it.

Advocate Tarrar had convinced Jahangir to take up the case as it would be crucial in setting the premise for freedom of speech in the republic. In addition, he had told her that Talal was a member of the lawyers fraternity and belonged to their group.

Nawaz Sharif was chairing a meeting with his legal team at Jati Umra. Tarrar was present in the meeting. Nawaz asked Tarrar to schedule a meeting of Jahangir with Talal and Khawaja Saad Rafique on Sunday between 4:00pm and 5:00 pm. Nawaz talked to her on the same call and after exchanging greetings thanked her for agreeing to represent Talal. Then he handed the phone over to Tarrar to finalize the meeting. When contacted, Advocate Azam Tarrar confirmed this information.