Supreme Court to hear video leak controversy case today

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will take up today (Tuesday) a number of petitions seeking a probe into the video leak controversy that resulted in the removal of accountability judge Arshad Malik who had handed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia case.

A three-judge bench under the stewardship of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa will hear the petitions. Other members of the bench are Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

Advocate Ishtiaq Ahmed Mirza and two other citizens moved separate petitions in the apex court seeking an investigation into the matter to “bring the truth to light.”

Mirza stated in his petition that the leaked video, as it appears, raised questions over the judiciary’s independence.

It is imperative to carry out a probe into the allegations hurled at judge Arshad Malik, he added.

Judge Malik had already dismissed the accusations leveled against him by PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz, the petitioner said, adding the allegation of bribe offered to the judicial officer by the former prime minister’s sons to elicit a favourable verdict is of a serious nature.

He contended Maryam’s press conference amounts to contempt of court, requesting the top court to order the government to take measures to uphold the independence of the judiciary.

Judge Arshad Malik was removed from his post on the recommendation of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week following a controversy revolving around the leaked videotapes purportedly showing him taking to a PML-N sympathiser.

Judge Malik, last year in Dec, had handed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case.

On July 6, Maryam Nawaz, addressing a presser, had claimed that the judge was coerced into convicting her father in the case