ISLAMABAD: Asking the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the leaked video of the accountability judge, who had sentenced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia case, the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the party wanted the country’s armed forces and the judiciary to stay above political controversies.

Speaking at a news conference at the National Press Club here on Tuesday, PML-N vice president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, secretary general Ahsan Iqbal and information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said that after the release of the leaked video of the accountability judge, the entire accountability process had become controversial and the judgement against Nawaz Sharif had become “null and void”.

“Legally and morally, the conviction (of Mr Sharif) has ended,” Mr Abbasi said, adding that clarifications being issued by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) showed that no one could expect justice from such an institution.

Ahsan says army, judiciary should be above political controversies

He alleged that NAB had always been used to break political parties and malign politicians.

Mr Abbasi termed the latest decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to keep his government away from the video leak controversy involving accountability judge Arshad Malik another U-turn, saying that Mr Khan had taken this decision after coming to know that the video was genuine.

He said the PML-N had released the video after carrying out complete verification in which the accountability judge had been shown telling a close aide to Nawaz Sharif that he had been blackmailed and pressurised to convict the former prime minister.

“This (Al-Azizia) judgement has no legal or moral ground to stay in field,” he said.

“After the judge’s confession, the judgement has become null and void. The higher judiciary will have to take notice of it,” Mr Abbasi said.

The former prime minister said that they had more audio and video tapes to prove that the ongoing accountability had no standing. However, he said, they had no immediate plan to release more videos as they did not want to blackmail any one.

“We have presented the evidence before the judiciary. The Supreme Court has the powers to take suo motu notice and there should be an action on the conduct of a judge,” he said.

Mr Abbasi said the only beneficiary of the Al-Azizia judgement and the ongoing accountability process was Imran Khan and he should be asked to appear before the court.

Mr Abbasi also ridiculed the clarification issued by the judge and said that he had not denied any content of the video and only stated that this video was recorded before the Al-Azizia case verdict, whereas in the video he could be heard clearly talking about Mr Sharif’s conviction. He also challenged the judge’s claim that he was offered bribe and had received threats from the PML-N, saying that why the judge did not inform about it to the Supreme Court judge who was supervising the entire proceedings of the case.

“The reality of the accountability and the judicial process has been exposed,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Iqbal, while referring to Prime Minister Khan’s statement that the government would stop the PML-N from waging the war against national institutions, said that his party was in fact trying to save the national institutions.

“We do not want to see judiciary, armed forces and other sensitive institutions being blamed for failures, wrongdoings and incompetence of the present government of Imran Khan,” he said.

“By repeatedly using the name of the army, Mr Khan is making the sanctity and impartial status of armed forces controversial,” he said.

On the other hand, Mr Iqbal said, the PML-N was making attempts to make the national institutions non-controversial.

“The judiciary and armed forces should stay above political controversies,” Mr Iqbal said.

“If the judiciary and armed forces of a country become politically controversial, its national security and interests come under threat,” the PML-N leader said.

“Mr Imran Khan is giving the impression that he has the backing of the judiciary and the army for whatever he is doing. Mr Khan is defaming the institutions and we are not doing it,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2019