As the Islamabad High Court (IHC) decided on Friday to remove accountability court judge Arshad Malik from his post, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz requested the higher judiciary to declare former prime minister’s sentence null and void.
In a series of posts shared on her Twitter handle, Maryam said the matter is not only about the removal of a judge, it is about suspending the verdict that the judge had issued. “The matter is about removing the verdict, which this judge had given under pressure, from the court record,” she said. “The clear meaning of the removal of the judge is that the judiciary has accepted the truth,” she said in a subsequent post. “If this is the case, how can a verdict by this judge being maintained?” she asked, adding that why her father was not being released if the judge, who had given the verdict in the case against him, had been removed.
Maryam says removal of judge means judiciary has accepted the truth
“A judge was found guilty of misconduct and was removed from his post; how can the subject of his misconduct be punished?” she further asked, adding that an individual, who had remained the prime minister of Pakistan thrice, was behind the bars despite being proven to be innocent. “Is it enough to only remove the judge? Certainly not,” she wrote on Twitter, and requested the judiciary to declare void the verdict against her father and to release him without any delays. “Now this matter is not restricted just to Nawaz Sharif. I am turning to the judiciary for justice. I will keep waiting,” she concluded.
Shehbaz says keeping Nawaz in jail for even a minute is illegal now
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said after the removal of judge Arshad Malik from the post, keeping Nawaz Sharif imprisoned is not a right decision. While calling for the immediate release of Nawaz, leader of the opposition in National Assembly said that the verdict against Nawaz has become void. He said that following the judge’s removal, there is no justification left for keeping Nawaz in jail. “Keeping Nawaz Sharif in jail for even a minute is now illegal,” he said, adding that the video and all the facts connected to it had been proven correct. “The verdict given against Nawaz Sharif under pressure should be declared void,” he reiterated.
Party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the verdict against Nawaz Sharif should be declared null and void and he should be released immediately. “It has been confirmed that the video is real,” she said in a statement shared by the PML-N on Twitter. “[The] judge sahib has conceded that he made the decisions under pressure,” she said, adding that after removal of the judge, the legal basis for the verdict against Nawaz has automatically ended. “After the removal of the judge, it has been proven that the facts that Maryam Nawaz brought before the people of Pakistan are correct,” she added.
