LAHORE, May 9: PPP Senator Rehman Malik on Thursday showed his ‘obsession’ with live coverage of a press conference which had already been delayed for 90 minutes for the same reason.

“I will not continue my press conference as I am being told that the private news channels have stopped the live coverage,” he told newsmen at the local hotel 15 minutes after he spoke about the Sharifs’ alleged corruption.

When a journalist informed him that it might not be possible for the channels to give his press conference a continuous live coverage in the wake of abduction of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son Ali Haider and fire in the Lahore Development Authority’s building, Malik said: “I stop here and will resume the press conference once I am assured that there will be no disruption in the live coverage.”

However, after an hour, Malik resumed the news conference but this time he completed it without complaining of ‘live coverage’ which could not be ensured.

Earlier, he came to address the news conference one and a half hours behind its schedule. “I was told that Shahbaz Sharif was holding a press conference and all the DSNGs (live transmission vans) were deputed there. That’s why I had delayed my conference.”

Talking about a newspaper advertisement in which the photos of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry were placed together, Mr Malik asked what impression the PML-N wanted to give to the people through this. “I think it wants to tell the people the judiciary is with the PML-N,” he said, asking the chief justice to take notice of this as it amounted to a serious violation of code of ethics of Election Commission.

He said two senior PML-N leaders had asked him to sack chief justice Dogar and their party would not insist on restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry. “The credit of restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry only goes to President Zardari,” he said.

Rehman Malik criticised Shahbaz Sharif for levelling a false allegation against President Zardari for stopping Sri Lankan doctors from visiting Punjab. “We have asked the doctors to also visit Sindh. “Why the Sharifs hate Sindh,” he asked.

The former interior minister asked the PML-N chief not to make army and ISI ‘controversial’ by announcing that he (Nawaz) would order probe into Kargil and Mumbai cases by taking India onboard.

He said Transparency International Pakistan chapter head Adil Gilani should be asked how he was pressurised by the Sharifs to give them ‘clean chit’ in Metro bus and other projects. He also talked about Rs30 billion corruption in Shahbaz government’s Sasti Roti Scheme.

Bringing more documentary proof about the alleged corruption of the Sharifs, Malik said the sister of the Sharifs had alleged that her brothers had used her fake signature in the property matters.

Malik said the Sharifs had put him behind the bar for one and a half years in a fake case and also got him tortured.

He condemned the kidnapping of Ali Haider and said there had been unwritten agreement between the Sharifs and Taliban.