Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday asserted that the cases against him were “hollow” and the “lies have evaporated” a day after the Islamabad High Court acquitted him in the Al-Azizia reference.

Speaking in a press conference alongside the senior PML-N leadership including Ahsan Iqbal, Ishaq Dar, Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehbaz, the PML-N supremo said: “After a long absence, I am grateful to God that I am seeing this day again.

“The cases — the fake cases — God has saved me from them.”

Yesterday, he was acquitted by the IHC in the Al-Azizia reference. It was one of the two graft references that Nawaz was convicted in. He was acquitted in the Avenfield reference on Nov 29 by the same bench.

The former PM dismissed the Al-Azizia case filed against him as bogus, asserting, “It wasn’t NAB’s independent decision; NAB was directed to pursue that.”

“A judge was appointed and instructed to ensure that Nawaz Sharif gets the punishment,” he alleged while naming a sitting Supreme Court judge who was part of the Panama case.

The former premier stated that all the cases filed against him were allegedly orchestrated “to bring our government down and to bring Nawaz Sharif down from his seat of the prime minister.”

He mentioned that during the trials, the judges found nothing in the Panama Papers case. He stated, “Because they wanted to punish me, they did not find anything in Panama Papers case. They want me to get out of the chair, so they brought the so-called Iqama case.”

Nawaz recalled that one of the judges on the Panamagate bench used the word “godfather” to describe him in the verdict. He questioned, “Do judges use words like these?”

He remarked, “First, this trial was false, on top of these, the remarks by the bench, and the media was conducting its own trial.”

He also criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for what he perceived as an unjust punishment for him and his daughter.

“Those who did all this to the nation should be held accountable,” he stated.

He emphasised that it’s not just about what happened to him, stating, “What has occurred with the people of Pakistan, with inflation skyrocketing and their lives becoming miserable, demands accountability.”

He emphasised that he never engaged in a conspiracy against former army chiefs Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif.

Anticipating “justice” on the election day next year, Nawaz mentioned, “On Feb 8, the largest JIT (joint investigation team) and court will be established with the participation of the people, and it will deliver a historic verdict against all the injustices that have occurred in the country.”

He underscored the necessity for collective action to navigate the people out of the current crisis. He mentioned being pained to witness people standing in long queues for subsidised roti, something he claimed was not a spectacle during his rule.