LAHORE: The PML-N has asked former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar to come clean about a leaked audio clip of a conversation purportedly between him and an unidentified man regarding the conviction of former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, though the former CJP has claimed that the voice in the clip is not his.

Taking to Twitter on Monday, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif said: “The emergence of a new audio clip of former Chief Justice (Saqib Nisar) shows how Nawaz Sharif & Maryam Nawaz were targeted as part of a grand scheme to keep them out of political process.”

While talking to Dawn.com, Justice Nisar termed the audio clip fabricated, adding: “I have never spoken to the person in the audio call.”

The FactFocus website that broke the story about the audio quotes Mr Nisar as saying he had never contacted any accountability court judge to order them to announce a verdict against Nawaz Sharif or Maryam. “Why would I do that?” Mr Nisar asked, according to the website’s report. “I have no grudges against Mian Nawaz Sharif.”

Party says verdict against Nawaz has no legal grounds

The former CJP also said that no one from the army or the Inter-Services Intelligence had ever contacted him or pressured him in connection with the case, the website stated.

On the other hand, Shehbaz Sharif tweeted that time had come to right the wrongs inflicted on his elder brother and niece. “The nation looks forward to justice system,” he said.

In the audio clip, a voice, allegedly Mr Nisar’s, can be heard saying: “Let me be a little blunt about it. Unfortunately, here it is the institutions that dictate judgements. In this case, we will have to punish Mian sahab (Nawaz Sharif). [I] have been told `we have to bring Khan sahab (Imran Khan) [into power]’.”

He allegedly goes on to add in the conversation, “Punishment will have to be given.”

When the man on the other end of the line says Maryam “doesn’t merit a sentence”, Saqib Nisar purportedly tells him: “You are absolutely correct. I talked to my friends that something should be done about this but they did not agree. There will be no independence of the judiciary. So, let it be.”

As the audio leak remained the top trend on social media, the PML-N asked the former CJP to explain his position on it. The party’s secretary general, Ahsan Iqbal, termed the leak “serious stuff”. “Former CJ Saqib Nisar has to explain his position. These tapes provide evidence to what was an open secret in Islamabad,” he tweeted.

Former federal information minister Pervaiz Rashid said: “The one [Nisar] who is refusing to recognise his voice today will reject his written judgements too tomorrow.”

PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said that after the surfacing of Mr Nisar’s “confession audio clip”, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz’s sentences had no legal or judicial grounds.

“This confession of Nisar has vindicated Nawaz and Maryam. God Almighty has his ways of ensuring that truth prevails and that’s exactly what happened. In the light of these revelations, Saqib Nisar and all those involved in this grand conspiracy must be booked under treason [law],” she demanded.

PML-N Punjab information secretary Azma Bokhari alleged that like Imran Khan, Mr Nisar was also a pawn. “For the respect of the judiciary, it is necessary that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz be acquitted,” she demanded.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2021