Judge video case ends with acquittal of key character, others

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Mian Saleem Raza, the central character of Judge Arshad Malik video scandal, has been acquitted by the District and Sessions Judge Cyber Crime Islamabad after a trial of nearly six years after the fateful meeting of the late judge with the PMLN loyalist in Lahore that changed the shape of country’s political power play.

On Thursday, Additional District and Session Judge Islamabad Adnan Rasool Larak acquitted the lead character Mian Salim Raza and others including Raza Khan, Mian Tariq (late), Nadir Khan, Nasir Mahmood and Hamza Butt in the Judge Arshad Malik video scandal case.

Mian Saleem Raza, who was placed in the list of most wanted terrorists, was accused by the FIA of blackmailing Judge Arshed Malik to extract a confession from him that he convicted Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference in 2018 under alleged pressure from the then establishment in 201. He was also accused of making a payment of Rs20 million to Mian Tariq to buy the video and also giving a land cruiser as bribe to the judge.

Not many people are aware that it was Mian Saleem Raza with whom the late accountability judge allegedly started secret meetings to send messages of apology and remorse to Nawaz Sharif. The late judge allegedly visited Nawaz’s Lahore home with Mian Tariq, the man accused of filming the judg. It was much later that Nasir Mehmood allegedly filmed the judge making a confession.

Saleem says that when Maryam Nawaz Sharif held a press conference on July 6, 2019 in Lahore to release the judge’s video, filmed secretly by Nasir Mehmood, Saleem Raza began the first target of the FIA and the police. Raza promised to cooperate with the FIA and sought a day or so. On July 9, 2019, instead of turning against Nawaz Sharif, he fled Lahore for Thailand and spent four years in exile in Europe and London. He returned to Pakistan at the end of 2022.

After his acquittal, Mian Saleem Raza shared how certain top officials put him most-wanted terrorists’ list, ruined his businesses and family life; how the PMLN treated him and what happened when a person close to General Faiz met him in London, to turn against Nawaz Sharif.

Saleem said Mian Tariq called him in London and apologised for the false statement that he had sold out the immoral video to him (Saleem) for Rs20 million.

Saleem said, “He (Tariq) said he was brutally tortured and forced to make a confessional statement against me. Nobody remembers today that Tariq Malik was tortured and that he later on died.”

Back in Pakistan now, Mian Saleem Raza intends to rebuild his life from the scratch. He is no longer part of the active PMLN politics.