PML-N government ministers and their supporters in the media are continuously trying to give the impression that the ruckus and rowdiness which lead to the cancellation of the NAB trial court proceedings on Friday was a spontaneous happening resulting from mismanagement between the court and police.
They argue that since the police were not letting the lawyers enter the court, which is a right of the lawyers, the infuriated crowd clashed with the police and thus the situation devolved into violence.
However, an investigation was undertaken by GVS and the evidence that we uncovered paints a completely different picture.
Nawaz, his legal team, PML-N’s senior party membership, and his accused family members are in no mood to comply with the ongoing accountability trial against them. Â
It appears that the whole ruckus was preplanned and shrewdly calculated to achieve a specific result which was the cancellation of the court’s proceedings so that the indictment of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, and Capt. Safdar could not take place.
Several recent events and facts support this argument:
Foremost amongst them is the fact that on the same day the accountability court was forced to cancel its proceedings, Nawaz Sharif filed a reference to the Supreme Court seeking the suspension of the NAB trial. The petition argues that the three NAB references against his family should be clubbed together into one reference because the three separate references are against his legal and constitutional rights and while the Supreme Court hears his petition the ongoing NAB trial should be suspended.
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This is an obvious delaying tactic which clearly indicates that Nawaz, his legal team, PML-N’s senior party membership, and his accused family members are in no mood to comply with the ongoing accountability trial against them.
Nawaz’s machinations were further exposed after a damning revelation was made by Ahsan Bhoon, vice-chairman Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), while participating in a TV program on Dunya News, Tonight with Moeed Pirzada. Ahsan revealed that the man, Khawar Ikram Bhatti, who was leading the angry crowd of lawyers and who was shown slapping the police inspector by media channels in front of the court is not an ordinary lawyer rather, he is actually an Additional Advocate General of Punjab.
GVS discovered that the leading figures in the crowd who sparked the violence with the police and later engaged in sloganeering inside of the court were all part of the PML-N’s lawyer forum and hold lucrative government positions which were bestowed upon them by the ruling party.
After clashing with the police outside, these PML-N lawyers who include Jhangir Jadoon, Raheel Akhtar Yousafzai, Shaista Khan Sultanpuri, Siddiq Awan, and Kinza Saadat proceeded inside the courtroom where they shouted slogans and made impossible demands of the judge who then adjourned the proceedings.
Now, after repeated instances where hooliganism has thwarted the smooth functioning of the accountability courts, political analysts and media personalities have expressed growing concern
This is not the first instance where the accountability proceedings against the Sharif’s have been delayed. The accountability court was set to start the trial in the third week of September but none of the accused presented themselves before the court. Senator Asif Kirmani had informed the court while representing the Sharifs that the summons had not been delivered to the Sharif’s residence in London because there was no known address despite the fact that summons had been delivered by Pakistan’s high commission in London to all known addresses of the Sharif’s.
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Then on September 26th when Nawaz finally presented himself before the court, the judge was impeded from proceeding by sloganeering and commotion caused by Nawaz’s supporters. This led the judge to ask for assistance and the subsequent deployment of Rangers to maintain order on 2nd October. That was the only instance until now where the proceedings went smoothly and documents of the reference were officially given to Nawaz.
Nawaz was then scheduled to appear before the court on October 9th when he was officially going to be indicted however, Nawaz left the country without the permission of the court and did not appear on the set date.
Now, after repeated instances where hooliganism has thwarted the smooth functioning of the accountability courts, political analysts and media personalities have expressed growing concern regarding the question of whether these proceedings will have any weight.
The question now is whether the monitoring judge, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, take any steps to safeguard the accountability of proceedings
Some have expressed their reservations regarding the attitude of the accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir who seems to abandon court proceedings over the slightest of pretexts.
It is being speculated in the media that there may be some larger coordination where the judge is intentionally being given provocations to adjourn proceedings.
The question now is whether the monitoring judge, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, take any steps to safeguard the accountability of proceedings or will the efforts to sabotage the trial for the Sharif’s future will be successful?