Declare Nawaz verdict void
Says ex-Pak PM’s daughter after judge’s removal; her interview “forcefully” taken off air within minutes
Pakistan’s PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz yesterday called for the verdict against her father former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to be expunged following the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to remove accountability judge Arshad Malik from his post.
In a series of posts shared on Twitter, Maryam said that the matter was not about the removal of a judge instead it was about suspending the verdict that the judge had issued.
“The matter is about removing the verdict, which this judge had given under pressure, from the court record.”
Judge Malik, on December 4, 2018, had handed Nawaz Sharif seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference. He, however, had acquitted him in a second reference related to Flagship Investments, saying “there was no case against Nawaz”.
The PML-N has disputed the conviction and last week party leaders presented a video apparently showing Malik saying he had been pressured into ruling in favour of conviction by individuals with compromising footage against him.
In a subsequent post, Maryam said: “The clear meaning of the removal of the judge is that the judiciary has accepted the truth.”
“If this is the case, how can a verdict by this judge being maintained?”
She asked why her father was not being released if the judge, who had given the verdict in the case against him, was removed, reported Dawn Online.
She requested the judiciary to declare void the verdict against her father and to release him without any delays.
Earlier, an interview of Maryam Nawaz with a Pakistani news channel was taken off “forcefully” within a few minutes of broadcasting, reported NDTV Online.
“Just came to know @MaryamNSharif interview has been stopped forcefully just (a) few minutes after it started Live #Pakistan #PMLN #PTI #PPP #HumNews,” tweeted Nadeem Malik, a Pakistani journalist working with ‘Hum News’.
Shortly after the blackout, the news channel issued a statement on its Twitter handle.
“Hum News believes in a free and responsible media. Protecting freedom of expression is one of our core values. At the same time, we stand for the respect and dignity of (the) judiciary in line with our ethical values and the Consitution,” a tweet from Hum News said.
