Are scales of justice balanced now?

Ruling party maintains PTI chief was given ‘special treatment’ on several occasions

LAHORE:

Despite the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the Al Qadir Trust case from the Islamabad High Court premises a day earlier, the PML-N on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction, questioning how a “level playing field” was offered to their party when the former premier was given “special treatment” in the past notwithstanding irrefutable evidence against him while their party chief organiser Maryam Nawaz was taken into custody during the PTI rule after “fabricated cases” were registered against her.

The PML-N had demanded a level playing field on several occasions, including the holding of elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the return of party supremo Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan from London.

The party claimed that the PTI chief was given special treatment, citing the courts that granted him bail in a number of cases in one go.

Read more: PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry arrested after evading police for 12 hours

In March, addressing PML-N workers in Sheikhupura, Maryam stressed that there could be no elections in Punjab and K-P until “wrongs done” to party supremo Nawaz Sharif were righted and Imran was held accountable.

“There will be no polls before the accountability of Imran Khan. There will be no elections without ensuring a level playing field,” she said.

“The elections will be held only after the scales of justice are balanced.”

Separately, PML-N leader and Railways Minister Saad Rafique said that elections in both the provinces were impossible without a level playing field.

Also read: PTI leader Asad Umar arrested from IHC premises

Federal Minister Javed Latif had also elaborated that level playing field meant putting the PTI chief behind bars and undoing the cases against Nawaz.

On Wednesday, PML-N leader Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman while talking to The Express Tribune said that the PTI chief should have been arrested earlier.

“However, given that he had the support of some elements in the establishment and some judges, he managed to evade the arrest.”

Rehman said delaying tactics were applied despite the fact that there were open-and-shut cases against Imran.

When asked whether Imran’s arrest fulfils PMLN’s demand of level playing field, he while referring to Maryam and Nawaz asked how it could be a level playing field where one is arrested on fabricated cases while others (Imran) are given special treatment despite irrefutable evidence against them.

On the question whether Imran’s arrest brightened Nawaz’s chances of homecoming, Rehman stated that the PML-N supremo would come back ahead of polls.

When asked why Nawaz did not return when the Supreme Court had ordered elections for May 14, he said the PML-N knew that polls were not possible on the date, “so there was no reason for his return”.

The government has already passed legislation allowing review of Supreme Court’s decision in cases taken up under original jurisdiction apparently in a bid to undo Nawaz’s sentence that prohibited him from taking part in politics for life.

The sentence against the PML-N supremo was handed down in a case taken up under original jurisdiction.

After assuming power early last year, the PML-N had also curtailed the National Accountability Bureau’s powers, refraining the national graft-buster from investigating cases that involved a sum below Rs500 million, which benefitted the Sharif family in several references against them.