The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday called upon Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Saqib Nisar and requested him to take notice of what it termed ‘the media trial of its leadership in violation of the Supreme Court’s (SC) orders.’
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s spokesman, senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said in a statement that the SC had clearly directed that no member of the joint investigation team (JIT) or Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would divulge any information to media.
The apex court had passed these orders while forming the JIT to investigate the alleged fraudulent bank accounts. “Sources ‘within JIT’ were openly being quoted on various talk shows and media outlets to speculate on the ongoing inquiry,” said Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. “The ongoing speculation is clearly being done with a malafide agenda to twist the facts, malign the PPP leadership and create confusion in the minds of the general public,” he added.
In the statement, Khokhar claimed the media trial was being carried out “at the behest of the FIA and JIT”, and wondered what options the apex court was left with to rectify the situation.
He also asked the court why it was ‘continuously ignoring the media trial’. “This raises a lot of questions on the credibility of the investigators, the conduct of the investigation, and seems that the outcome is already predetermined,” he said. Khokhar hoped the honourable CJP would take appropriate action in this regard.
Published in Daily Times, December 1st 2018.