ISLAMABAD - A defiant Nawaz Sharif appeared before the accountability court here on Wednesday to face trial in the corruption cases even as the ousted prime minister claimed that the courts in the country had “double standard”.
Talking to media after appearing before the court and later after visiting a PML-N ailing parliamentarian at a local hospital, Nawaz Sharif came down hard on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for toeing the policy of the dictators but expressed his willingness to take political forces in the country along.
Reaffirming his commitment to the Charter of Democracy, Nawaz said he was ready to meet Asif Ali Zardari without any preconditions for the sake of democracy.
Referring to the proposed amendment in the Electoral Reforms 2017 to place bar on a disqualified person to hold party portfolio, which was defeated in the National Assembly the other day, Nawaz made it loud and clear that the Parliament was not prepared to support dictators-tailored legislation but regretted the support the PPP had extended to the bill in that connection.
He greeted the coalition partners for defeating the proposed amendment in the Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 in the National Assembly last Tuesday, and said it should be an eye-opener for those who did not want to see democracy flourish in the country, as the National Assembly had given verdict in clear terms that any legislation introduced in the constitution by a dictator was not acceptable in all its manifestations.
Nawaz again pointed out the “double standard” of judiciary, which had “different yardsticks” for him and the PTI leaders who according to him were given preferential treatment be it the cases against Aleem Khan, Jehangir Tareen or even Imran Khan.
He criticised courts for delaying cases against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and other leaders of Khan’s party. He said rules for game should be same for everyone.
“Judgements in our cases come very early. Don’t know how much time will be taken for decisions in their cases,” he said and claimed that the courts had “double standards” while dealing with their and others’ cases. “Rules of the game should be equal. Yardstick is different in our cases,” Sharif added.
He said that the judges of the superior courts had shown the bias against them, by dubbing them as Sicilian mafia and godfather, which in no way merit an independent and impartial judiciary.
To a question about the religious party’s sit-in at Faizabad Interchange, Nawaz said the issue should be resolved through negotiations and said he was not in favour of use of force against the protesters.
Nawaz said he was still committed to the Charter of Democracy he had inked with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and announced that he would not enter into any NRO in future, and hoped that other democracy-loving forces in the country would forge unity and would help him restore the sanctity of vote.
To a question, he said he did not consider PTI as a political party as it was toeing the agenda of dictatorial forces but he regretted that the PPP, which had a long history of struggle against the dictatorial forces, had extended support to a piece of legislation introduced in the Constitution by a dictator.
Nawaz once again highlighted that his disqualification was not made on any corruption but was sent packing on keeping an Iqama (residence certificate) and not taking salary from his son.
The former prime minister said that the time had changed and it was not 1999 when some dictator would overthrow a democratically-elected government.
People of Pakistan know that their future is in democracy and only by strengthening the democratic order in the country, the target of transforming Pakistan into an economic power could be materialised.
Criticising former president Pervez Musharraf, he said where was now the person who had imposed martial law in 1999.
He is not being allowed to enter into Pakistan today, he added.
This is called the power of vote for change and this change will become visible in 2018 polls, the ousted PM remarked.
Nawaz also listed a long list of his government’s achievements over the past four years in power adding that they had brought load-shedding to an end and put the economy back on track.
Earlier the court issued notice to prosecution on the applications of Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar, seeking revision in the exemption from personal appearance in the cases against them from December 5 onward. Now the court would take up the case on November 28th.
On the previous date of the hearing, the court on the plea of the accused had granted one-week exemption to Nawaz, while one-month exemption to Maryam and his spouse from personal appearance before the court, so that they could proceed abroad to see Begum Kalsoom Nawaz, who is undergoing cancer treatment.
But despite exemption all the three appeared before the court and moved fresh applications for revising exemption period from December 5 to January 5.
During the course of hearing in the cases against the Sharif family in Avenfield Apartments, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment corruption references, the defence and prosecution counsels traded harsh words during the course of cross-examination of prosecution witness and at one point they become so loud that judge Mohammad Bashir intervened that if they had to quarrel in such fashion then he would better leave.
It was the 13th hearing in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia corruption cases, while in Flagship Investment Reference it was 14th sitting of the court.
The exchange of hot words between the prosecution and defence counsel triggered, when during the cross-questioning of prosecution witness by defence counsel Khawaja Harris, NAB Prosecutor Mohammad Afzal intervened and dropped hint to the witness.
This move annoyed the defence counsel who refrained him from intervening during the cross-examination but the NAB prosecutor said that defence counsel was confusing the witness and it was his duty to keep the witness on track.
In all, some three witnesses deposed before the court in these cases and later all of them were cross-examined by the defence counsel as well.
Prosecution witness Mohammad Bashir informed the court that he was summoned by the NAB Lahore office and he appeared before the Investigation Officer Imran Dogar and presented him the record he had sought from him on September 5, 2017.
To a question from defence counsel, he said that he had received the summon order from the NAB Lahore on September 5 and he went there with relevant record on September 6, and handed it over to the investigation officer.
He further said he had never visited the NAB Lahore office before.
The second prosecution witness who deposed before the court was Mazhar Raza in Avenfield Apartments reference informed that he appeared before the NAB in August 2017 and submitted the copy of his written statement to the investigation officer.
To a query, the witness informed that in Al-Tofeeq Trust case Nawaz Sharif was not in the list of accused as the company had not provided any service to him.
However, he avoided to comment on the nitty-gritty of the issue as it was part of the court order.
The third prosecution witness was the chief financial officer of Chaudhry Sugar Mills Shahbaz Haider. He was also cross-examined by the defence counsel Khawaja Haris.
Nawaz appeared quite relaxed in the courtroom and even joked with a journalist whose wallet was slipping out of his pocket. “It might happen that someone pulls it out and I end up being accused of it,” a witty Nawaz told the journalist. The courtroom burst into laughter with the judge showing displeasure.