ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that he had no differences with the Supreme Court but with certain judges ‘who did not decide his case on merit’. “Judges welcomed every martial law. Whenever there was a military coup in the country, no one would know about it but this is not the case today,” he remarked during a meeting with a group of lawyers. Maryam Nawaz, Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana and PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq were also present. The three-time prime minister demanded trial of the military dictators the way he was tried in the Supreme Court. “We have to see what happened to people in 1971 when the country was broken up into two. They were the same people who worked day and night with Quaid-e-Azam to create Pakistan. Even today such games are being played,” he said. Claiming that that he had been ‘persecuted’ over the years and ‘pushed towards revolt’, Sharif drew parallels between what he considers to be his own ‘cornering’ by the state and the events that led to the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan. “[Former Bangladesh prime minister] Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was not a rebel, but was made into one,” Sharif remarked, referring to the tragic consequences that followed the state’s refusal to allow a popularly elected leader to hold the prime minister’s office. The PML-N chief claimed that he had not been accused of corruption worth even a single rupee, adding that he was held accountable from his college days. “And when nothing came up, they made iqama [foreign work permit] the reason of disqualification instead of Panama,” he said. Nawaz lamented that PTI chief Imran Khan’s five-year record was deemed enough during his disqualification case in the Supreme Court while his record from his school days from 1962 was sought. He added that he respected the courts and they too should respect other institutions in return. Earlier, while meeting party workers, Nawaz said that judges should speak through their judgements. The former premier, in his talk, said that a revenge campaign had been launched against him. “But I will face every conspiracy,” he asserted. The PML-N chief stated that the standards of justice should be same for everyone. “The country should benefit from the sacrifices that I have rendered,” he added. Published in Daily Times, January 10th 2018.