PML-N’s ‘bench fixing narrative’ vindicated: Maryam

ISLAMABAD:

PML-N Senior Vice President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz hailed on Monday the order of two judges of the Supreme Court who questioned the unbridled powers of the top judge of the country on constituting benches, among other things, saying it was a “victory” of PML-N’s narrative about “bench fixing”.

The Sharif family scion was referring to Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail’s order through which they not only raised objections on the unfettered powers of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on taking suo moto notice but also expressed that making benches by the CJP alone to hear cases was nothing but a “one-man show”.

“Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Mandokhail’s decision today is a victory for our narrative about bench fixing,” the PML-N leader said while presiding over a meeting of party’s spokespersons, asking “if the bench-making is not fair, how the decision can be considered fair”.

The term bench-fixing has usually been viewed as match-fixing as often people are able to predict the outcome of cases even before the court rulings in the cases concerned.

Also read: Dissenting judges urge SC to revisit CJP's ‘one-man show’

Also, the phenomenon once again came under spotlight as people on social media started using the term “like-minded judges” for the judges who usually give decision in favour of a particular political party.

Maryam’s remarks have come after Justice Shah and Justice Mandokhail issued a 27-page order on Monday, stating that the suo motu case regarding the Punjab and K-P elections date announcement was dismissed by a majority of four judges out of seven.

The two judges aimed to “revisit the power of the one-man show enjoyed by the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan” in order to “strengthen” the institution and “ensure public trust and confidence” in the apex court.

During the party spokespersons’ meeting, Maryam directed them to “expose Imran Khan’s facilitators in judiciary with full force,” saying that the alleged violation of the Constitution and the law applied in ex-premier Nawaz Sharif’s cases shall be fully exposed.

“If there is justice, all the evidences coming in favour of Nawaz Sharif should have been enough to level the scales of justice by now,” Maryam said.

During the past few weeks, Maryam and PML-N leaders have been objecting that the scale of justice was not equal for the PML-N and PTI, saying “two standards of justice in one country are not acceptable”.

Key decisions in spokespersons’ meeting

During the meeting of PML-N spokespersons, Maryam along with party leaders decided that they would bring “unfair and vindictive judgments” against former premier Nawaz Sharif and testimonies that later came in his favour to the public.

Among other decisions, a party statement said that a strategy had been prepared to bring the facts about former premier Imran and his alleged facilitators before the public.

The meeting decided to expose the alleged corruption by the PTI chief and his facilitators.

“Truth should be told to the nation without any pretension,” Maryam directed the party spokespersons, saying all the characters who facilitated Imran and his party should be exposed.

Maintaining that the PTI chief was now “past”, the PML-N chief organiser said that the party should now think about the future of the country.

The meeting decided to convey facts regarding the party policies to the people.

Referring to Imran’s tenure as premier, Maryam asked the party spokespersons to apprise the people how the country was destroyed during the last four years.

Also read: Maryam turns her guns on LHC

The PML-N senior vice president alleged that the PTI chairman wanted to divert public attention from his corruption cases, saying irrefutable evidence against him was available in different cases, including Tyrian White, foreign funding and Toshakhana cases.

“Economy was destroyed during the last four years. Not even a single job out of 10 million as promised [by the PTI] was offered and not a single house out of the five million committed was given to the public by the Imran-led government despite making a pledge before the 2018 general elections,” she said.

Lashing out at the PTI and its 10-point agenda given during the Minar-e-Pakistan rally, Maryam said the former ruling party had only “one-point agenda which is to loot [the country]”, further noting that Imran had “uttered 10 lies” at the Lahore public gathering.

The PML-N leader stated that a false agenda was being propagated by the PTI again recalling that the party had come to power with the slogan to root out corruption from Pakistan within 90 days but the country’s score had fallen by 14 points during the former ruling party’s rule.