There seems to be no end to Salman Butt's woes with barrister Aitzaz Ahsan now confirming that his law firm is not representing the suspended Pakistan Test captain in the spot-fixing case.
Ahsan, one of the leading names in Pakistan's political and legal circles, said that he was never personally involved with Butt's case or acted as his representative."Shahid Saeed at Aitzaz and associates law firm was representing Salman Butt but now he is no longer associated with the case or the ICC hearing that will be held in January in Doha," Ahsan said.
Ahsan added that only Yasin Patel, a lawyer based in London, was acting on behalf of Butt in the spot-fixing case.
"Shahid Saeed had prepared the reply to the ICC and he wrote down all relevant issues but now he is not associated with this case," Ahsan said.
Two other prominent lawyers, Khalid Ranjha -- a former attorney general of Pakistan -- and Aftab Gul, have also made it clear that they were no longer representing Butt. The two had attended the appeals hearing in October in Dubai where the appeals of Butt and Mohammad Aamir against their suspensions were rejected by the ICC tribunal head, Michael Beloff.
Beloff on Wednesday rejected Butt's application for an adjournment of the full hearing into the spot-fixing charges against himself, Aamir and Mohammad Asif due to be held next month.
Sources close to Butt said that one of the main reasons senior lawyers have distanced themselves from Butt was due to his "non-serious" attitude.
"Aitzaz and associates, in fact, made it clear that they were not interested in defending the former captain as he himself had a non-serious attitude towards the case," a source said.
"So basically now it is just Yasin Patel who is representing Butt who apparently has accepted his fate at the full hearing," the source added.
