Nawaz Sharif says denied fair trial in corruption references

ISLAMABAD: Apparently upset by an accountability court’s decision rejecting his request to merge three corruption references filed against him into one, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday he has been denied a fair trial.

Speaking to reporters after his appearance before the accountability court today, he took a swipe at the judiciary, saying his family was deprived of a fair trial.

Commenting on the Supreme Court’s detailed verdict rejecting the Sharif family’s petitions seeking review of the July 28 disqualification verdict, he said he expected the outcome. “The decision will never come in my favour,” he said.

He severely criticized judges, saying they bear malice towards him. “Their malice and wrath is manifested in their words. This wrath and words will become a dark chapter of the history,” he said.

The accountability court on Wednesday rejected a requested made by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for a single trial on all the three references filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Sharif and his sons – Hussain and Hassan – have been named in three references filed against them in compliance with the verdict of the apex court in the Panama Papers.

A day earlier, the Supreme Court rejected a detailed verdict rejecting review petitions filed by the Sharif family in the Panama Papers case.

“No ground has been taken in these review petitions nor any argument has been advanced at the bar questioning anything observed or concluded by me in my separate opinion recorded in the main case. The other Honourable members of the Bench have not felt persuaded to review their opinions already recorded. These review petitions are, therefore, dismissed,” Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa wrote.

The court observed that Nawaz Sharif tried to “fool the people inside and outside the Parliament” and  even tried to fool the Court without realizing that “you can fool all the people for some of the time, some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.