Court proceeds to declare PML-N leader fugitive in judge blackmailing case

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad court has started the process to declare two accused, including Nasir Butt, the central figure in the video leak controversy, as proclaimed offenders over their perpetual absence from the hearing of the judge blackmailing case, reported ARY News on Saturday.

Judge Shaista Khan issued directives for the authorities concerned to start proclamation and attachment of properties of absconders, including Mr Butt and Mian Raza.

During the hearing, the court was informed that arrest warrants had already been served to them in London.

Lately, Nasir Butt, who is associated with the PML-N, was spotted submitting, what he said, evidence to the Pakistan High Commission in London.

He had allegedly recorded the controversial video of judge Arshad Malik in which the latter claimed that he was coerced into passing a verdict against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference.

Judge Malik, however, registered a case with the FIA against Butt and others.

Addressing a press conference alongside top PML-N leadership on July 6, Maryam Nawaz had shown reporters a video in which accountability court judge Arshad Malik can be heard saying that there was “no proof of corruption against the deposed premier” in the Al-Azizia reference.

Judge Arshad Malik, who sentenced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to jail, had denied Maryam Nawaz’s allegations that the judge was blackmailed into convicting Nawaz without any evidence.