Honourable SC bench can’t give verdict against their ‘favourite one’, says Nawaz

Former prime minister says Imran Khan accuses everyone of corruption but is himself the most corrupt man

LAHORE: Nawaz Sharif has said that the judiciary’s ‘double standards’ will not be accepted as the five judges who disqualified an elected prime minister will have to substantiate their decision.

“We will not let them [the five honourable judges] off the hook until they prove my corruption,” the deposed premier said while addressing a rally in Kot Momin of Sargodha district on Saturday.

“The decision of disqualifying me on a hypothetical pay that I have not withdrawn is a joke,” he said, adding that the huge turnout in Sargodha was a referendum against the court’s decision.



“People have rejected my disqualification decision. You cannot send an elected prime minister of Pakistan packing without a single shred of evidence,” Sharif asserted.

He also said that due to his disqualification the country’s economy had slowed down, rupee had depreciated against the dollar, the stock market had fallen and inflation had spiked.

Exonerating his own prime minister of the charges of bad governance, Sharif said that it was not the prime minister’s fault.

He also came down hard on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, accusing him of using charity money collected in the name of Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital for gambling.

“He admitted to having an offshore company, admitted to giving money to Rashid Khan while accepting his sins, but the courts refused to accept his confession and gave him a clean chit,” he said of Khan.

 



He said that in 2008 he had helped people restore judiciary and if given the mandate he would restore justice in the country. “There should be same standards of justice for everyone,” he added.

Earlier, speaking to the crowd, Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz described the court’s decision, declaring Imran as honest and righteous, as a fixed match, alleging that the judiciary was biased.

She said, “Some [politicians] disqualified by the courts stand tall in public, while the ones cleared by the courts do not stand proud since they know it was a fixed match.”

Blaming opposition parties for staging the Panamagate saga, she said, “During the Panamagate trial, three generations of ours were held accountable but not a single shred of evidence was found against us.”

She said since the intention was to disqualify Sharif, “Iqama was dug out of the Panama”.

Citing Hudabiya Paper Mills case in which the court termed the reference as a tool to pressure her father, she said, “One day Panamagate case will also be included in such decisions.”

She said that the opposition parties fearing PML-N’s success hid behind the judiciary and the establishment.

About any National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in the making, she said, “We are blamed for negotiating an NRO. Who needs an NRO? NRO is when an accused person [Imran] accepts the charges, but the courts refuse to accept his admission and declare that it is not his corruption. This is NRO.”

She said in Sharif’s case, where not a single piece of evidence was found, a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference was ordered and a monitoring judge was placed whereas Jahangir Tareen, who was caught red handed, only faced disqualification.

“No NAB reference was ordered, nor a monitoring judge deputed,” she said, adding that the courts could not even bring back a dictator (Pervez Musharraf) who abrogated the Constitution.