Daily Times

Another day, another leak. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz has unleashed a vociferous attack on the government with presenting a video wherein accountability judge Arshad Malik, who convicted Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference, is seen talking about ‘immense pressure from hidden hands’ to convict the former prime minister. The core of her press conference, where other PML-N leaders were also present but chose to speak less, was that the judge was pressured, blackmailed and coerced into convicting Mr Sharif. Now, under the burden of immense guilt and for having nightmares, over the verdict, he wanted to relieve his conscious and chose the audience of PML-N sympathiser Nasir Butt, to make the disclosure.

The next day, the judge’s office issued a press release denying the charges and that he had given the verdict on the basis of evidence. The judge first put up his case and then demanded a probe into the presser. He says the presser is a ‘despicable attempt to mesh together various instances and topics spoken about, to present them out of context’. The video has, of course, been edited, which Maryam Nawaz, says is to protect certain names. The judge’s presser also puts up a counterattack that during the trial of Nawaz Sharif and his other family members, he was “offered bribe by the representatives of the accused and was given threats of serious consequences if I did not cooperate.” Calling the video fake and based on lies, the judge demanded a legal action against those individuals.

Now, when both sides have spoken, it is time for retrospection for both politicians and the judiciary. The press conference was also attended by PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, who has never been questioned either by the media or courts for his audio tapes wherein he was heard telling a sitting judge of a superior court to convict Benazir Bhutto at the earliest. Other audio tapes of their accountability lord Saifur Rehman have also refused to go away from the public memory despite the passage of two decades. The old players of this dirty game might know more about such tricks.

In this scenario, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has rightly called for the forensic examination of the tapes. The law should also take its own logical course. If Maryam Nawaz had taken the legal course, it would have been better for their cause and the courts too. Similarly, the judge should have not taken a lenient view of the bribe offers and threats to him during the trial. Any attempt, either by the member of the public or from the courts of law, to discredit the judiciary should be taken seriously. *