ISLAMABAD: A day after removal of Judge Arshad Malik from the accountability court over the video scandal, Prime Minister Imran Khan and vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz took their war of words to Twitter, accusing each other of blackmailing and pressurising state institutions for political gains.

Without naming anyone, the prime minister wrote on his official Twitter account that like “Sicilian mafia, the Pakistani mafia uses tactics of bribe, threat and blackmail” to pressurise state institutions and judiciary to protect their looted money.

“In a similar vein to the Sicilian mafia, the Pakistani mafia uses tactics of bribe, threat, blackmail and begging to pressurise state institutions and judiciary in order to protect their billions of money laundering stashed abroad,” wrote Mr Khan.

Imran says like Sicilian mafia, Pakistani mafia uses tactics of bribe, threat and blackmail

The prime minister used the terms “Sicilian mafia” in an apparent reference to the remarks of a Supreme Court judge who had likened the PML-N government of the time to the mafia during the hearing of the contempt of court case against former PML-N senator Nehal Hashmi who had used threatening tone for the judges of the apex court who were hearing the Panama Papers case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The prime minister’s remarks on Twitter were accompanied by a four-year-old news article about a testimony given by former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano during a trial regarding bombings carried out by mobsters in the 1990s.

Mr Khan’s tweet came a day after the Islamabad High Court removed accountability court judge Arshad Malik over the video scandal.

Judge Malik, who had convicted Mr Sharif in the Al-Azizia corruption reference, has reportedly submitted an affidavit to the court claiming that he was blackmailed owing to another ‘damaging’ video that he termed a “manipulated immoral video in a compromising position”, recorded somewhere in Multan.

The judge’s first purported video statement claiming that he had been pressurised and blackmailed into convicting Mr Sharif came to surface during a press conference addressed by Ms Maryam with PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore on July 6. The claim was allegedly part of the judge’s conversation with a PML-N sympathiser, Nasir Butt, who the government suspected had a criminal history.

In his affidavit, Judge Malik claimed that when Mr Sharif’s trial in Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment was transferred to his court, he was approached multiple times by associates and supporters of the PML-N’s supremo. He also alleged that he was offered a Rs500 million bribe by Hussain Nawaz, a son of Mr Sharif.

Responding to the prime minister’s tweet, Ms Maryam termed Mr Khan “part of a mafia”, accusing him of using institutions for settling scores and targeting the opposition.

“You’re a part of the mafia that pressurises judges into targeting and punishing your political opponents. It is you who used the institutions to settle scores with your opponents and defaced and maligned them in the process. Shame on you. Imran Khan,” she wrote.

In a second tweet in Urdu, Ms Maryam described Mr Khan as part of the “heinous conspiracy” hatched to convict Mr Sharif to keep him out of the political field. She alleged that the accountability court judge who had convicted the former premier had exposed the “terrible face” of the prime minister.

Meanwhile, Hussain Nawaz through his Twitter account asked who had leaked the judge’s affidavit to the media. He expressed surprise over use of the affidavit’s content by the government representatives, saying a “propaganda machine” had been opened even without waiting for drying of the ink on the affidavit.

“Is it not necessary to investigate all these to ensure provision of justice?” he asked.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2019