Judge pressured to convict ex-Pakistan PM,says daughter

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said Saturday that the judge who convicted her father in corruption cases had been forced to order against Nawaz Sharif.

Maryam played a video clip at a news conference in Lahore, along with Shehbaz Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and opposition leader in the National Assembly, and former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

In the alleged video clip of Judge Arshad Malik, “[he] says that some individuals called him for a cup of tea during the hearing of case against Nawaz Sharif and showed him his old personal video and than put their demand on how to deal with Sharif," she told the presser.

Maryam claimed that Malik sent his message through his friend to her family and said he don't feel easy after convicting Sharif.

She also alleged that the judge even accepted that Sharif was innocent and no allegation proved against him.

On Dec. 24, the accountability court judge Malik sentenced Sharif to seven years in jail after 15-month legal process in the corruption cases, popularly known as Al Azizia Steel Mills.

Sharif is currently serving prison term in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

"The judge revealed in his video that his life was made unbearable and forced him for the verdict against Sharif," Maryam further asserted.

She vowed to defend his father, saying: “I will not make Nawaz Sharif another Mohamad Morsi, [late Egyptian president dying during a court hearing last month]."

Meanwhile, the government rejected Maryam's claims and announced a forensic audit of the videos clips in question.

"We never dictated any judge, judiciary is independent in our country and we will carry a forensic audit of the video clips showed by Maryam Nawaz," Firdous Ashiq Awan, special adviser to PM for information, told reporters in Islamabad.

Last year in May, Sharif, 68, was also sentenced to 10 years in jail in a corruption case stemming from the whistleblower Panama papers scandal by an accountability court, but the Islamabad High Court suspended the conviction in September.

His daughter and political heir Maryam and son-in-Law Captain Mohammad Safdar were also sentenced to seven years and one year in prison respectively in the same case. The two are also on bail.

In July 2017, Sharif was disqualified from office by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal, which also led to the filing of three corruption cases. Not long after, the top court also barred him from holding his party's leadership.

Sharif served as the premier from 1990 to 1992, 1997 to 1999, and 2013 to 2017, unable to complete even a single five-year term. His two previous governments were dismissed over corruption charges and through bloodless military coup in 1992 and 1999, respectively.

Shehbaz Sharif, his younger brother and three-time chief minister of Punjab, the country's most populous province, and his son Hamza Shehbaz, who is also the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, are also facing inquiries in connection with multiple corruption cases in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Shehbaz Sharif who was arrested in last October is now out on bail while his son is still in the NAB custody.

Last year in July, a senior judge of Islamabad high court, Justice Shaukat Siddiqui was accused the country's powerful spy agency of manipulating the judicial proceedings of the Nawaz Sharif case, later he was dismissed from the service.