As it decided to hear Nawaz Sharif’s appeal in the Al-Azizia case on merits, the two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court also had to decide upon another request on Tuesday.

The request was made by Nawaz’s lawyers who said that they no longer wished to pursue a request they had filed for the trial court’s decision to be overturned because of the Judge Arshad Malik video scandal.

The petition was filed in 2019, when the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz had shown a video in a press conference claiming the judge had admitted to making the decisions convicting Nawaz in the Al-Azizia reference under pressure. It may be of note that the same judge had cleared Nawaz in the Flagship reference.

Nawaz had challenged his conviction on the basis of the scandal, saying that the judge’s decision did not hold merit.

Read: Former accountability judge Arshad Malik passes away from COVID-19

The judge was subsequently dismissed from service after an inquiry by the Lahore High Court in 2020 and he passed away the same year.

His death was the reason cited by Nawaz’s lawyers on Thursday as they expressed their wish to stop pursuing the case.

However, respect for the dead is not the only aspect of the plea made by Nawaz.

If the petition against Judge Arshad Malik had indeed been pursued, it could have led to the Avenfield case being sent back to the trial court where it would have been heard again.

However, by opting not to pursue the case, Nawaz’s lawyers have now chosen to debate the merits of the case in the Islamabad High Court.

Thus, the judge video scandal, that led to its main character’s dismissal and made plenty of headlines back in the day, has effectively been closed for good.