Sharif says Maryam dragged to court ‘out of spite’

Warns of consequences for implicating ‘even our daughters in this ruthless game’

ISLAMABAD: Whosoever has dragged Maryam to court cannot evade the consequences of their actions, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said.

Speaking with media-persons inside the accountability court, Sharif claimed Maryam had no connection with politics but she was being dragged to courts.

“What could be worse than dragging her to court in reprisal and out of spite?” he said.

Family members, Nawaz said, who had never held public offices were facing court cases.

“You are implicating even our daughters in this ruthless game,” he said.

“Don’t tread a path of no return,” said the former prime minister. “This behaviour will have consequences impossible to escape,” Nawaz added.

“Maryam is in no way connected with the era for which we are being punished. They are questioning her about Gulf Steel, when she was barely a year old,” he said.



Doubting the sincerity of those who had launched the campaign against him, he said that he did not know what they were after by targeting him and his family.

“We have become the laughing stock to the world,” he said.

Maryam recorded her statement in the Avenfield reference case.

Sharif, Maryam and Capt (retd) Safdar were named as accused in this reference filed by the NAB.

Judge Muhammad Bashir of the accountability court had handed the accused a questionnaire,, asking them to file their responses.

Sharif read out his answers in the court during the past two hearings.

Maryam also blamed the strained civilian-military relations for the outcome of the JIT report.

Both father and daughter maintained that members of the investigation team probing the Sharif family were biased and had been influenced by others, manipulating the outcome.

Maryam also expressed similar views and said: “Everyone knows that general (retired) Musharraf is, and has been, at least since 1999 (maybe even before that), hostile towards my father and persistently harboured ill-will and hatred.”

At the outset, Maryam said that although she had heard statements of witnesses, the prosecution failed to produce any admissible evidence against her..



Maryam also said that she had never claimed before the Supreme Court that she was the real or beneficial owner of the Avenfield properties and she never deviated from her stance.

About the Mutual Legal Assistant requests, she said that JIT had, in reality, sent no request for assistance to the United Kingdom, British Virgin Islands, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and, as such, no such act should be taken into consideration while deciding the case.

A formal application for producing the Volume X was moved on her behalf before the trial began, but the request was dismissed by the court.

The last volume of the JIT is said to contain the record of all such requests for legal assistance.

She said that any reference or using such a record would violate her fundamental right to a fair trial, guaranteed under Article 10(A) of the Constitution.

On Thursday, Maryam answered 46 of 128 questions.

Maryam would resume recording her statement on May 25 (today).

“It has been proved beyond doubt that Ms. Maryam Safdar had been the owner of Avenfield properties,” the JIT report stated, adding that documents submitted by the respondents were “fake and manipulated”.