Sharif says separate scales of justice unacceptable

Declares he will launch a campaign for supremacy of law and Constitution

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdicts in disqualification cases involving Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen, deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said ‘dual standards of justice’ are unacceptable and that he will launch a campaign against it.

“Two separate scales of justice are unacceptable. This type of justice cannot continue in the country. We will start a campaign against it and do everything for supremacy of the law and the Constitution. My struggle is for supremacy of the law and the Constitution,” Sharif said on Saturday.

Sharif, who is facing corruption references in an accountability court, was talking to media in London, where his wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, is reportedly receiving treatment for cancer.



Announcing two verdicts on constitutional petitions filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi, seeking disqualification of PTI chief Imran Khan and general secretary Jahangir Tareen on various grounds, the apex court on Friday gave a clean chit to the former but disqualified the latter.

The bench disqualified Tareen on very similar grounds to those used by the SC’s larger bench to oust Sharif on July 28 in the Panama Papers case. The court, however, did not pass any direction regarding allegations of corruption against Tareen.

Commenting on the judgment, Sharif said he had already said before announcement of the judgment that even in the case against Imran and Tareen, the decision would be against him.

“They [the apex court] considered my ‘hypothetical’ salary as my assets but [they] are not ready to consider [their] multi-million pounds business as [their] assets. The decision that was announced yesterday speaks for itself,” he added.

A day earlier, Sharif’s daughter and his political scion Maryam Nawaz had also criticised the Supreme Court’s decision and said ‘bias’ of those demanding accountability had been exposed.

“It proves that Iqama was just a smokescreen, while the real reason was to target Sharif,” she tweeted in Urdu while comparing Friday’s judgment of the apex court with the one that resulted in her father’s ouster.

She accused the apex court of adopting double standards as “Khan was not disqualified for hiding his offshore company, but Sharif was sent home for not declaring an unclaimed salary” in the nomination papers for the 2013 elections.

“Today’s decision vindicates the notion that Sharif was unjustly sent home,” Maryam said.

“There is not a shadow of doubt that the target of conspiracies, sit-ins and revenge-driven accountability was Nawaz Sharif as he is the true representative of the people,” she said in another tweet.