Man behind judge’s videos wants to record statement before IHC

ISLAMABAD: The country is presently in a state of war and thus forget what the law says and punish Nawaz Sharif, this is how the former Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik quoted a key (now retired) constitutional office holder directing him in a video whose forensic has been done from a British firm by Nasir Butt - the man who made the secret videos.

Informed sources said that Nasir Butt, who was seen sitting next to the judge in the video that was shown in a press conference by Maryam Nawaz recently, has got the forensic authentication from a British firm of all the videos and audios he had recorded of the judge Arshad Malik.

The sources said that the British national Nasir Butt, who belongs to the PML-N and is considered close to Sharif family, wants to give his statement along with the forensic report of the video already made public before the Islamabad High Court in Nawaz Sharif’s bail case to be heard in the third week of this month.

It is said that the court would be offered that the British company which had got verified the authenticity of the video/audio (already made public) would be willing to give its statement in the IHC through a video link or even by sending its representative to Pakistan provided the required security is provided.

The sources claim that although the other set of videos and audios (which have not yet been made public) have also been authenticated by the British forensic experts, these videos and their forensic reports would be produced before the court at this stage.

These videos, which both Nasir Butt and the Sharif family, are keeping close to their chest, the sources said include judge Arshad Malik’s alleged admission that he was pressurised by two key constitutional office holders (one now retired) to decide case against Nawaz Sharif.

The important person, who has now retired, was alleged telling Arshad Malik to punish Nawaz Sharif no matter what the law says because “the country was then in a state of war”.

The other important person, the sources said, was alleged of coercing Malik to give at least 10-year jail sentence to Nawaz Sharif when the accountability judge had said that there was no enough evidence to punish the former prime minister.

Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik was secretly filmed multiple times talking about Nawaz Sharif’s case. Nasir Butt, who Judge Arshad admitted was his longtime acquaintance, had managed these secretly filmed videos. The videos/audios, which have not yet been made public, besides others also showed judge Arshad meeting Nawaz Sharif at Jatti Umra and Husain Nawaz in a hotel in Madina.

Weeks back Maryam Nawaz Sharif had played one explosive video before the media, purportedly showing Arshad Malik telling a man that he was blackmailed and coerced into convicting Nawaz Sharif despite that there was no evidence against him. The judge was shown telling Nasir Butt that “they have in possession secret material against everybody.”

“They called me and showed me a video. After watching it, I had no choice but to act upon what they said.”

Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik, however, had termed the video shown by Maryam Nawaz fabricated and false and said it was made by twisting his conversations on different occasions.

When the video scandal case was taken up by the Supreme Court, it ruled that it was not an appropriate stage for the Supreme Court to interfere in the matter of the relevant video and its effects, particularly when the video may have relevance to a criminal appeal presently sub judice before the Islamabad High Court.

According to the verdict, the relevant video could not be of any legal benefit to Nawaz Sharif unless it was properly produced before the Islamabad High Court in the pending appeal, its genuineness was established and then the same was proved in accordance with the law for it to be treated as evidence in the case.

Later, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered disciplinary proceedings against judge Malik for violating the code of conduct. Malik was placed under suspension and repatriated to Lahore High Court, Lahore for disciplinary proceedings.