Imran wants top judiciary to probe judge’s video clip

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday the top judiciary should take notice of a judge’s purported video clip recently released by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz.The PML-N’s vice president released a video clip purportedly showing an accountability court judge allegedly admitting to a lack of evidence against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference. In December, the accountability court judge had sentenced Sharif to seven years in prison in the same corruption case.Chairing a session of government spokespersons here, the Prime Minister said the government would not tolerate attacks on state institutions and would thwart every conspiracy against them but the judiciary should take notice of the video. Geo News reported.Sources quoted Prime Minister Khan as saying forensic audit of the video should be conducted, adding accountability process would not stop despite moves by the opposition.Separately, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said the investigation into the controversial video should be carried out on a judicial forum, as the opposition would object if the government initiates a probe in this regard.Addressing a press conference, Akbar raised questions about the authenticity of the controversial video clip, saying a forensic audit of the video should be carried out. He reiterated that the other man in the video, who Maryam described as PML-N worker Nasir Butt, was a convicted criminal who had previously served a prison sentence in Pakistan. Akbar questioned who had attacked the judiciary in the past, saying judges of the Supreme Court had declared these same people members of “Sicilian mafia” in a previous verdict.On Sunday, the accountability court judge called the video “fake and fallacious” and demanded legal action against those involved in producing it. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan had earlier dismissed Maryam’s claims, saying they can only be considered authentic after a forensic audit of the video. Dr Awan said Maryam had attempted to misguide the nation after “bulldozing her uncle”. She added: “A baseless story was concocted for their own vested interests to make the institutions controversial…If the claims are valid, they should have been presented before the courts rather than to the media.”

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