Court judgments have come too early in our cases: Sharif
islamabad — Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members on Wednesday appeared before an anti-graft court here as trial resumed into the corruption cases filed against them in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal.
Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired captain Muhammad Safdar arrived at the court amidst heavy security arrangements made to deal with any untoward incident.
Sharif and his family members were welcomed by a number of senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML–N) party at the court.
Judge Muhammad Bashir started the proceeding which was still going on. Talking to media before the start of the hearing, the former prime minister said that the ruling PML N has delivered despite frequent sit-ins against it.
The government has not been allowed to work properly and the sitins have been going on since 2014. “I’m talking about the PTI (Imran) sit-ins,” elaborated Sharif.
According to him, the Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) also used to attend the 2014 sit-in against the centre along with his official protocol.
“They (PTI leaders) are turning out to be liars,” he said, adding that corruption scandals against Imran Khan, Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan have also been public now.
The government has not been allowed to work properly and the sit-ins have been going on since 2014. I’m talking about the PTI (Imran) sit-ins.
“Judgements in our cases come very early. Don’t know how much time will be taken for decisions in their cases,” said the former prime minister.
The court had last week accepted 67-year-old Sharif ’s application for exemption from court hearings till November 27. However, Sharif appeared before the court on Wednesday due to a change in his
Nawaz Sharif, Ousted prime minister
plans. Three cases were registered by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Sharif and his family in the Accountability Court Islamabad.
The accountability court on November 8 rejected a plea by Sharif to club all three cases together.
Sharif ’s lawyer Khawaja Harris had argued that all three cases dealt with assets beyond means and allegations and most of the witnesses were same, therefore the references should be taken as one.
He also claimed that the courts have “double standards” while dealing with their and others’ cases. Last week, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar also dismissed Sharif ’s in-chamber appeal to merge three cases filed by the NAB
Sharif was indicted in all three cases while his daughter and her husband Safdar, co-accused with Sharif in only one case, were also indicted last month.—