In the wake of former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar’s leaked audiotape, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday said it was the “fifth testimony” that vindicated her party’s stance of judiciary being influenced to give verdicts against them.
She also repeated her party's stance that Justice Nisar should appear in court to respond to the leaked video while addressing a press conference in the Chak Shahzad subrub of the capital Islamabad.
"He will have to tell people who forced him to convict ex-PM Nawaz Sharif and me,” Maryam said.
She was accompanied by senior party leaders including Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Javed Latif, and Rana Sannaullah.
The PML-N vice president held the media talk in response to Nisar’s leaked audiotape in which the latter was heard saying “we will have to penalize Mian Sahib [Nawaz Sharif]. And they [military establishment] say “we shall bring [Imran] Khan Sahib [to power].”
Garret Discovery, a US firm that performed the forensic analysis on the audio clip of the former top judge, had certified the integrity of the audio file. The firm stated in its report that “this audio has not been edited in any way.”
She contended that this was the fifth instance which favoured the PML-N’s stance, including former IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz’s statement, former accountability court judge Arshad Malik video and the affidavit submitted by Gilgit-Baltistan's former top judge Rana Shamim.
Justice Nisar has denie the accusation and dismissed the latest audiotape as a fabrication.
Maryam also demanded that the former top judge reveal the names of the individuals who forced the latter to bring Imran Khan to power, adding that if the punishment didn’t stand valid why did he issue such orders.
Last five years
Maryam lamented the “process of justice” over the last five years, stating that a process of “selective accountability" was used to target politicians from the opposition.
“Without any evidence, I was deemed incapable by the court to hold party office for seven years,” Maryam said while lamenting the state of “political victimisation of her party leaders.”
‘Plot’ to bring Imran Khan
The PML-N leader alleged that such manoeuvres were planned to bring Imran Khan to the throne.
“You were [Justice Nisar] ordered to bring Imran. The process of accountability was different for Imran [Khan] and Nawaz [Sharif],” she said.
“You will have to pay for you deeds. Such pieces of evidence were about to come to light, PML-N played no role in such developments,” Maryam said.
Ministers’ conference
Reacting to the government ministers’ pressers, she said that rather than Justice Nisar, it were government ministers who were defending the audiotape.
“They are afraid of getting exposed,” Maryam added.
She claimed that the premier didn’t call any meeting on inflation, but summoned a party meeting after the leaked videotape.
She also laughed off the government’s allegations that the PML-N was behind the leaked audiotape.
“Despite all this I respect the judiciary. We respect people, bodies that work under the boundaries of Constitution,” Maryam said.
To a question on whether the PML-N would ask for the audiotape to be submitted as evidence in courtm she said: “I would give a chance to courts that they would rectify this situation by themselves.”
