Law minister rules out relief for Nawaz after 'judge's video'

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister of Law Farogh Naseem, responding to PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz’s presser, said on Saturday the video she has brought to the fore will not help her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif get any relief in the case.

He said in a statement that the video which featured a person, named Nasir Butt, purportedly talking to Accountability Judge Arshad Malik, was the PMLN’s man.

“If the video was available, why didn’t they produce it before the court,” he questioned, adding: “Nawaz Sharif will not get anything from the video.”

He said such video is presented before a court of law before the pronouncement of a verdict. Judge Arshad Malik is an honest and responsible man, he added.

The minister questioned whether the Sharif family’s London flats and other things, which resulted in a conviction of the former premier, will lose their importance after the emergence of the video.  Does the London flats issue die out by merely saying the judge was under pressure back then, he asked.

Addressing a press conference alongside top PML-N leadership earlier today, the daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif, showed reporters a video in which accountability court judge Arshad Malik can be heard saying that there was there was “no proof of corruption against the deposed premier” in the Al-Azizia reference.

“No evidence that a single penny has been shifted from Pakistan. No evidence of shifting any money by accused from Pakistan,” Maryam translated the judge Arshad Malik as saying from the video.