LAHORE: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar has alleged that former premier Nawaz Sharif is trying to influence judges, just as he used to do in the past.

“The time of the Sharif doctrine has gone, wherein the House of Sharifs tried to either buy judges or attack them through different tactics, including leaking of audio tapes,” Mr Akbar said, declaring that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would continue to expose them.

Speaking at a presser here on Friday, the PM’s adviser claimed that once again a conspiracy had been hatched against the judges who were hearing cases related to the ‘House of Sharifs’.

Giving a historical perspective, Mr Akbar said the Sharif family tried to delay the case of Maryam Nawaz’s Avenfield apartment case. When the judges asserted that both parties should argue the case so that an early decision could be taken, a ‘doctored audio tape’ of Justice Saqib Nisar was leaked, he said, adding that within a couple of days a forensic audit confirmed the tape was not original.

Soon afterwards, the adviser said, an affidavit of retired chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim surfaced that raised many questions, including its timing. “The affidavit surfaced just to influence the cases at the Islamabad High Court,” he alleged.

He said the judges took the affidavit as an attack on judiciary and started contempt of court proceedings. In the meantime, he said, UK solicitor Charles Guthrie acknowledged that Mr Shamim signed the affidavit at the office of Mr Sharif’s son at Marble Arch.

He stated that the people present at the Marble Arch office also discussed that the Sharifs would offer the ex-chief judge some big office after coming back into power.

Mr Akbar claimed that the solicitor’s evidence had gone through the forensic audit and found it to be original. “Eventually, Rana Shamim was indicted for contempt of court as well as an attempt to influence the course of justice,” he explained.

Answering a question about the examination of Mr Sharif’s medical reports by the Punjab government, the adviser said that he had been told that the medical board expressed its discontent over the reports, which were actually eight letters written by his physician Dr David Lawrence.

Responding to a question that the PTI government had been working on some cases for the past three and a half years, yet no accountability was seen as per government’s own narrative, the PM’s adviser said governments were supposed to work within the ambit of law. Challans and evidence had already been submitted to the courts, which were expected to decide the cases soon, he explained.

Since all the challans and pieces of evidence were part of the court proceedings, “the year 2022 will be the year of conviction of Sharifs”, the PM’s adviser said.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2022