The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday decided to hear former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case “on merit” as it rejected the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prayer to remand the case back to a trial court. A division bench of the capital’s high court, led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, resumed hearing the PML-N supreme leader’s appeal against his conviction in a courtroom crowded with the party leaders, lawyers and workers.
Islamabad Accountability Court-II judge Arshad Malik on December 24, 2018 convicted Nawaz in Al-Azizia case, sentencing him to seven years in prison while imposing on him a fine of $2.5 million. The same judge had acquitted the former PM in the Flagship case. The accountability judge had, however, become controversial after the emergence of some videos in July 2019 in which he could be seen allegedly confessing to a PML-N leader that he convicted Nawaz “under duress.”
A Supreme Court bench, hearing petitions filed in the wake of the video scandal, had in August 2019 ordered action against Malik and a disciplinary committee of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had in July 2020 sacked the judge in view of misconduct. However, interestingly, Nawaz’s counsels, who had earlier filed civil miscellaneous applications in the IHC seeking acquittal of the PML-N leader in the Al-Azizia case in view of the video scandal, announced on Thursday that Nawaz did not want to press his application due to Malik’s demise.
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Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor highlighted that Nawaz’s counsel was giving arguments on the merits of the case despite the fact that the former premier had filed some applications in the court with regard to alleged misconduct of Judge Malik. “The court should take up these applications [with regard to the accountability judge]. However, if they [PML-N] want the case to be heard on merit then they should withdraw the applications.”
Responding to the objection, Nawaz’s lead counsel, Amjad Pervaiz, told the bench that “We will not pursue our applications regarding the video scandal, as Judge Arshad Malik has passed away. We are not pursuing these requests anymore." Justice Aurangzeb noted that if the judge's conduct was improper at the time of the case's decision then it would have implications for this case. “If you pursue the application, then we will look into it. Arshad Malik is no more but the rest of the people are still present,'" he added.
Nawaz’s counsel, however, reiterated that they did not want to press the application now. Justice Farooq stated that in view of the Supreme Court's order in Arshad Malik’s case, the IHC has two options. ”We can decide the case on merit and we can also remand the case back to some accountability court,” he said.
While NAB requested the court to remand the case back to a trial court, Nawaz’s lead counsel Amjad Pervaiz requested the IHC bench to decide the case on merit. “The same court [IHC] has already decided two of the three NAB references [filed against the PML-N supreme leader in the wake of a July 2017 order of the Supreme Court],” he said.
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Last week, on November 29, the same bench acquitted Nawaz in the Avenfield corruption reference, a case in which Nawaz Sharif was convicted by an accountability court in July 2018. The court had also accepted NAB’s request to withdraw its appeal against the accountability court’s order to acquit Nawaz in the Flagship reference.
Justice Aurangzeb noted that if the case is sent back for retrial, Nawaz Sharif will not be considered a convict. “The trial court will have to decide on the case again. If NAB follows the same approach, then you won't have any issue. Why are you worried then?" he said.
Another of Nawaz’s counsel, Azam Nazir Tarar, requested the IHC to decide the appeal on merit.
After hearing the arguments, the court rejected NAB’s plea to remand the Al Azizia case back to an accountability court and announced hearing the case on merit. Arguments Giving argument, Amjad Pervaiz said Al-Azizia Company was registered in 2001, whereas Hill Metal was registered in 2005 while Nawaz Sharif was in exile in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday put forward his political credentials as a "neat and clean" politician, who has been doing politics since the age of 19 and served the country as its youngest foreign minister.
Addressing a workers convention in Shangla, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Bilawal emphasised that his party had chalked out a comprehensive plan to double the wages over the next five years, if the party was voted to power in the February 8 general elections.
“It is extremely difficult to keep hands clean in politics, but mine are devoid of the stains of corruption or the blood of the people,” Bilawal told the gathering. He claimed that the PPP was the only political party which thought about the people and the future of the country.
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“We have proved in the past too that the PPP increased the wages of the people the most [among all political parties]. Now too, we have a plan to reach our target of doubling wages within five years. This is the only way to combat poverty,” he added. “This is not an unattainable feat.”
The PPP chairman claimed that the other political parties were not thinking about the people or future of the country. He stressed the need for providing the labourers and farmers with their rightfully-earned income. He said he considered poverty and price-hike as his opponents, and not the other parties.
“I would like to inform the youngsters and students of the country that it was the PPP that helped the country emerge from deep turmoil in the past and today too, [the PPP] is the only party that can provide ‘Roti, Kapra Aur Makaan’ [food, clothing and shelter].
Bilawal highlighted that his party had been fighting the war against poverty for three generations. “We have learned from our elders how to serve the downtrodden masses, and this is our political training,” he remarked.
Taking a jibe at political rivals, Bilawal said that PPP was not into the politics of name-callings and TikTok-style antics. He urged the youngsters, elders, students, farmers and labourers of the country to rally behind the PPP to change the fate of the country.
“Just as the people have now witnessed all the politicians of the country, I too have seen them closely. Their politics is deeply entrenched in hate and division. We have to introduce a new form of politics, with the people being the sole priority,” he continued.
“We need to think about the progress of the labourers and farmers, not the elite class. The economy can no longer run just to benefit the elite, it has to benefit the poor,” he remarked, noting that the country was riddled with woes, be it the heightened polarisation in politics or the worsening economic crisis.
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In this situation, he said, “traditional politicians” were still adamant to “continuing the politics of hate, ego and division”. These traditional politicians had turned politics into a means to carry out personal vendetta, instead of becoming a platform for a difference of opinion, he added.
He continued that they had no interest in solving the problems of the people. “The ever-increasing inflation, poverty and unemployment are the most important issues for my brothers and sisters, but the least for our fellow politicians,” he maintained.
Addressing the youth, Bilawal said every politician promised employment, but the PPP proved time and again that it was not just a slogan. He pledged that the PPP would initiate projects in K-P under public-private partnership, which it had implemented successfully in Sindh.
“We will hold the investors accountable for the well-being of the labourers. Youngsters, who were told that they would be given jobs and be able to support their families after receiving education, are now being pushed from pillar to post for employment,” he said. “Employing youngsters in the country or abroad is the responsibility of the state,” he stressed.
He recalled that the PPP government had introduced the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in the past to financially support the country’s poor women. “This time, we are working on providing a ‘Youth Card’ to the youngsters, so that the process of providing them with employment is made easier,” he disclosed.
Bilawal said his mother, PPP chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was no longer alive and he wished to serve the women of the country just like a son would. He added that the women of the country had supported Benazir and created history by making her the first female prime minister in the Islamic world.
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The PPP chairman noted that he was aware of the difficulties faced by the country’s women. He added that these challenges would be overcome not only by expanding the BISP, but also by creating employment opportunities for women.
Bilawal further said two-thirds of the country was submerged after the catastrophic floods last year, and his party had promised the victims that it would provide them with homes. “Now, 2 million houses are being constructed for them and the ownership of the land is being given to the women to provide them with an asset that is of use to them,” he continued.
He highlighted that K-P kept putting up with floods now and then, but the victims were paid no heed. “We will bring our ‘Apni Zameen, Apna Ghar’ project to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and compensate for the sufferings of the flood victims of the past too”, Bilawal pledged.
The PPP chairman noted that the onus of putting an end to the traditional politics of hate and division, while establishing a ‘rule of the public’ was on the people themselves.
Bilawal said he was grateful to the jiyalas for conveying to the world that the valley of Shangla was alive with the slogan of ‘Jiye Bhutto’. “Today too, the Jiyalas and brothers of Benazir Bhutto are steadfast on her ideology to complete her incomplete mission,” he added.
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