Process of accountability will not stop at me, says Nawaz

Denies rift in the Sharif family; dismisses rumours of an NRO; hearing adjourned till Nov 7

ISLAMABAD: As the irony would have it, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif stood trial before an accountability court on November 3 as opposed to the former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf who abrogated the Constitution by imposing state of emergency on November 3, 2007.

Exactly a decade ago, Musharraf had imposed emergency in the country and Nawaz had initiated fight for an independent judiciary. On Friday, Nawaz along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son in-law Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar sat in the courtroom as accused and spoke to reporters before the hearing commenced.

In one stroke, the ex PM dismissed rumors about NRO, technocrat government, rifts in the Sharif family and his party while simultaneously raised objections over his trial, questioned stance of opposition parties and demanded open trial for all, including judges.

The three-time former prime minister said neither he was a part of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in the past nor will he be in future, adding that such questions should be asked from those who formulated the NRO. He rubbished rumors about a technocrat government saying such rumors have been making rounds for the last 70 years.



To a question about his much talked about confrontation with state institutions, the former PM questioned “is it me that is confronting with the institutions or the institutions are confronting me”.

While talking about Nov 3 exactly after a decade in the courtroom as an accused, he said there were so many “black days” in the country’s 70-year long history but no lessons have been learnt.

Discussing about former president Asif Ali Zardari’s strong criticism after his {Nawaz’s] disqualification in the Panamagate case, Nawaz said Zardari was saying all this ‘to please some others’.

To another question about his struggle for the restoration of judges in 2007, Sharif said he was a strong supporter of an independent judiciary but will not throw its weight behind a judiciary that supports dictators under the ‘law of necessity’.

He said cases against judges pending before the Supreme Judicial Council should be conducted in open courts as transparency was the only way forward for the country.

“I am fighting for justice and will expose those who are a hurdle in the way of justice,” Sharif said. “Contempt of court is being committed from both inside and outside the court”, he added without elaborating further.



“The process of accountability will not stop at me,” he said, adding that there was sense of urgency to wrap up cases against him before the Senate and general elections next year. Nawaz said he earlier raised 12 questions but has yet to get answers for them.

Hundreds of NAB cases are being heard across the country without any “super judge” overseeing the proceedings, he said, asking why a monitoring judge was supervising the NAB reference against the Sharif. He said SC judge’s supervising NAB reference was unique in his cases.

On August 1, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had appointed Supreme Court’s Justice Ijazul Ahsan to oversee the proceedings of the NAB references filed against the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in line with the top court July 28 verdict.

“What is this corruption case? Have we received any kickbacks? Why are we facing trial?” he questioned, adding were they being punished for eradicating terrorism from country, striving for peace in Karachi, overcoming load shedding, bringing in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and putting the country on right track.



He further said that he had gone through the references and it only had details of the Sharif family business. “We had a thriving business even before we joined politics,” Nawaz stressed. He reiterated that all the political parties should stand united.

Dismissing rumors of a conflict between him [Nawaz] and his brother Punjab’s Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the former premier said that those conspiring against the family will never succeed.

As the ironic November 3 hearing was about to end, the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir enquired from the defence and prosecution teams if the accused were present in the courtroom. When the view was made clear, the judge said, he just wanted see if they were present in the court.

Friday’s hearing was adjourned after the defence counsel Khawaja Haris informed the court that a detailed order of the Islamabad High Court which set aside accountability court’s order of October 19 to a certain extent has yet to be released and case could only be taken forward once the parties present arguments in line with the order and court decided three applications of Nawaz afresh.

Nawaz had sought the IHC’s directions for the court to frame joint charge and conduct a single trial against Sharif family. He had also sought suspension of proceedings till the framing of joint charge.

The court will resume hearing on November 7.