State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry Friday said that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will appear before the Accountability Court on October 19. Talking to the media persons, Chaudhry said that the references filed against the Sharif family have not been adopted under the law. He said that nobody is allowed to take law into hands, adding that everything should follow the law.
Referring to the incident of mismanagement at the Federal Judicial Complex on Friday, he said the incident took place outside the building of the Judicial Complex, which is not in the court premises. He said a number of lawyers daily visit the complex to attend the courts dealings with customs, banking and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) etc. The accountability and anti-terrorism courts were operating and conducting hearings simultaneously, he added.
He said that the incident occurred when lawyers tried to enter the building which, at once, caused some mismanagement. "I categorically say that the mismanagement took place outside the complex building, not in the court premises, near a picket where a number of lawyers attempted to enter the compound to appear in different cases as per their routine practice," he claimed.
He said that Maryam Nawaz and her spouse Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar appeared before the Accountability Court as per schedule, rejecting the impression that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers tried to interrupt the court proceedings.
"There are two security points, one is the picket under SSP (Operations) outside the complex and the other is at the building under SSP (Security)," he said and added that an inquiry into the incident had already been ordered. Earlier, he said, Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar and Muhammad Ishaq Dar had been appearing before the Accountability Court, but no such mismanagement occurred.
Chaudhry said that Chairman PTI Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders were doing propaganda on the incident and trying to malign the PML-N, regretting that Khan was levelling allegations who himself was not abiding by the court orders in different cases and was a declared absconder. He said the PML-N leadership always respected the judiciary and had been appearing in the Supreme Court, before the joint investigation team (JIT) on Panama Papers and Accountability Courts despite having reservations.
"Respect to judiciary and not agreeing to the court decisions are two different things," he said, citing an example if a litigant is not satisfied with a court's verdict, he usually approaches the higher forum for remedy. It is a legal right of every citizen whether or not to agree to any decision if he is not satisfied with any verdict," he added. The minister said that the PML-N leadership was not in confrontation with the judiciary, adding that it was just exercising its legitimate and legal right, as former prime minister was tried in the Panama Papers case, but was ousted on Iqama.
Answering to a question, Chaudhry said that earlier opponents had been doing propaganda that Nawaz Sharif and his family members would not appear in the accountability courts but they appeared and the former prime minister would attend the court in next hearing as well.