Daily Times

Responding to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s presser on Saturday, Law Minister Farogh Naseem has said the video clip brought in by Nawaz Sharif’s daughter won’t help her father to secure any kind of relief in the case.

“If the video was available, why didn’t they produce it before the court,” he questioned, adding, “Nawaz Sharif will not get any benefit from the video.” He also defended the judge and said that instead of a presser, videos like these should be presented in the court of law. Judge Arshad Malik is an honest and responsible man, he added.

The minister said merely a random audio clip like this can’t alter the proofs that were submitted in the court regarding colossal corruption committed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. “London flats issue is still there no matter what the judge said in the clip,” he said, and confirmed that the man talking to the judge is PML-N’s Nasir Butt.

The minister questioned whether the Sharif family’s London flats and other things, which resulted in a conviction of the former prime minister, will lose their importance after the emergence of the video. Does the London flats issue die out by merely saying the judge was under pressure back then, he asked.

Separately, spokesperson to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Gill on Saturday said those who attacked judiciary in the past have again committed character assassination of a judge of the accountability court. “The immoral political party was proudly showing the alleged video … it is equivalent to character assassination of a judge by those who attacked judiciary in the past as well,” he said.

Gill said the nation is well aware of PML-N’s past who would dictate verdicts through phone calls to judges. “The suspicious press conference which is based on lies has no weight in the judicial system,” he said. “PML-N is now using negative tactics after finding no signal of any NRO. ‘Calibre Queen’ will get no benefit of her lies and they have to return the looted money back,” he said. “Mrs Safdar [Maryam Nawaz] had previously tried to wash crimes of her offending brother and later she snatched PML-N’s presidency from Shehbaz Sharif. This is nothing but the attempt to save looted money … her political training has been completely exposed today,” he added.