ISLAMABAD: As opposition MPs in the National Assembly on Tuesday continued criticising a former chief justice of Pakistan on the second consecutive day for allegedly “victimising” Mian Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, the government called for avoiding making political capital through targeting state institutions.
The opposition lawmakers, especially those belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanded to hold a probe into the allegations levelled against former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar by chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Appellate Court Rana Shamim.
They said that all the state institutions stand by each other but it is unfortunate to see that the parliament – the top legislative body of the government – has miserably failed to establish its supremacy.
According to the PML-N MPs, the way their leader Nawaz Sharif was “thrown out” from the parliamentary politics is nothing but a conspiracy of the powerful Establishment with the help of judiciary.
However, the government ministers portrayed completely different picture of the PML-N leader’s disqualification from taking part in politics, saying Sharif had to go home for ‘stealing national wealth’ as he failed to provided his source of income when a case was being heard by the top court of the country.
Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed called upon the PML-N leadership to avoid targeting state institutions.
He said that the PML-N has an old and a bad habit of targeting state institutions, especially the military and the judiciary, whenever graft cases against its leaders are opened.
“They were trying to build this new narrative in wake of their next hearing to make negative impression against the judiciary to get petty gains,” he added.
He continued that it is unfortunate that instead of facing the courts, the PML-N is trying to use impolite language, while discussing court matters in public.
He questioned whether the present government was involved in Panama Leaks or showing offshore companies or any other scandals against Nawaz Sharif and his family, which were known to everyone.
He said that this is a fact that Nawaz Sharif is a declared absconder and disqualified from the office by the court.
He alleged that Nawaz Sharif is not truthful and trustworthy as per the judgment, who has no courage to face the court.
He said that it is also a part of the history that Maryam Nawaz used Calibri font to forge documents about illegal offshore companies, which were mentioned in the Panama Papers.
He said that they presented wrong information to the court, while denying having all illegal property.
He added on failing to satisfy the court they even presented a ‘Qatari letter’.
He said that the PML-N had launched an attack on the judiciary as it had been doing in the past, adding it is the history of the PML-N that it had attacked the Supreme Court in the past and they will do so whenever they do not get decisions in their favour.
He said that Sharif had nothing to say about billions of rupees corruption by him but it was his bad luck that he did find a controversial judge like Justice Qayum when his graft cases were being heard by the courts.
The minister said that Sharif had looted the national exchequer, while Nawaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar and his son-in-law were absconders.
The special assistant to the prime minister on Capital Development Authority (CDA) affairs, Ali Nawaz Awan, said that the PML-N had always used the national institutions for their vested interests.
He said that the incumbent regime was working to prevent the political influence over the state institution but the opposition parties were not supporting the government in this regard.
He blamed that the main purpose of disclosing the statement of the former chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan was to affect the upcoming hearing of Nawaz Sharif’s case on November 17.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021