PbBC demands suo motu of leaked video

LAHORE: The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) has called for a suo motu notice urging Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa to order an inquiry into a leaked video of an accountability court’s judge wherein he allegedly confessed to have convicted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under coercion.In a statement issued on Monday, PbBC Vice chairman Shahnaz Ismail Gujjar said the video of accountability court judge Arshad Malik put a big question mark not only on the legitimacy of the conviction of Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family but the cases pending against other politicians. “Under the given circumstances fingers being raised on the role of present judiciary are not uncalled for,” he said and alleged that promotion of judge Malik as district & sessions judge and his subsequent appointment in accountability court had also been not done in transparent manner.He said the judge had violated the judges’ code of conduct by visiting the court on Sunday, a holiday, only to issue a press release in his defence. Doubting the claim of the judge about being attempted to be bribed by the Sharif family, he said the trial judge could have informed the inspection judge, a Supreme Court’s justice in the case, or the Islamabad High Court chief justice if there were such attempts. The vice chairman stated that the situation after the leak of the trial judge’s video direly required a suo motu notice by the chief justice of Pakistan and a detailed inquiry into it so the questions being raised on the role of the institution of judiciary could be answered.

from The News International - Top Story https://ift.tt/2xApSdb