Nawaz, Maryam bail case: PTI, PML-N trade barbs in NA

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentarians of PML-N and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the National Assembly on Tuesday took on each other in a heated debate on the alleged involvement of ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan in influencing the bail application of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and party vice president Maryam Nawaz, throwing the agenda of the private members day out of the window.

The House was scheduled to take 109-point order of the day comprising introduction and passage of bills, reports of standing committees, resolutions and calling attention notices. Speaking on a point of order, Mian Javed Latif of PML-N said if a chief judge leveled an allegation against an ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, then it calls for serious investigation.

He said a judge admitted to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's wrongful execution 20 years later, and now an ex-Chief Judge is saying that then Chief Justice asked a judge of Islamabad High Court not to grant bail to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz prior to 2018 general elections. He demanded the chair to constitute a parliamentary committee of the House to probe as to who was speaking the truth. “We will have to decide whether to become Justice Saqib Nisar or act as Justice Faiz Isa and Shuakat Aziz Siddiqui,” he said.

Responding to the tirade, the Minister for Communication Murad Saeed questioned the timing of the affidavit by an ex-Chief Judge and said it was produced when the court was set to hear an important case on November 17. Saeed said that Nawaz Sharif is not a product of hardcore political work but owes his elevation to the late Gen Ziaul Haq and Lt-General Jilani. He said a party leader who became the prime minister thrice is hatching conspiracies against institutions from abroad. “Return to the country if you are innocent, face the courts and produce evidence in support of your innocence,” Murad Saeed said while addressing Nawaz Sharif.

The minister said the PML-N leadership always fabricates a ‘tale’ whenever the court is about to hear any important case. He said the Panama Papers were not brought to the fore by the country’s judiciary, institutions or the PTI rather, it was an international scandal of corruption and money laundering, which also disclosed the offshore assets of Nawaz Sharif and his family.

Opposition member Mohsin Dawar questioned as to why the government ministers were defending the ex-Chief Justice when another ex-Chief Judge of Gilgit Baltistan was leveling allegations against him. “Instead of investigating the affidavit, it is surprising that the government is defending the ex-Chief Justice,” he said. Calling for accountability of judges and generals, Mohsin Dawar said no investigation was ordered against the general who reportedly owns 100 franchises of a company. He also wanted to know as to why the court was not fixing a date to hear the bail application of Ali Wazir.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CDA Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan said both the PML-N and the PPP failed to serve the masses. He said it was Nawaz Sharif’s history to speak against democracy and constitutional institutions whenever his vested interests were threatened. The PTI parliamentarian, Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, said the PML-N always came to power from the backdoor and now its leadership was trying to pressurise institutions to provide him with relief. “I will request the PMLN leadership to surrender before the courts and not to malign the institutions,” he said. The PML-N parliamentarian, Nausheen Iftikhar, who was elected MNA in NA-75, Daska by-elections, congratulated the Election Commission of Pakistan for releasing the report that exposed rigging in elections. “It was proved that the federal and provincial governments were involved in rigging in the by-elections,” she said. She said the PTI government that made tall claims of electoral reforms was involved in rigging the Daska by-elections but despite all odds, she managed to win with support of her party leadership.

Meanwhile, the parliamentarians from PPP and MQM Pakistan traded barbs on the issue of a blaze that burnt the Cooperative Market in Karachi to ground. Speaking on a point of order, PPP MNA Shazia Marri asked the MQM parliamentarians to refrain from point scoring on the issues of Karachi and come forward to resolve them. She said sincerity of the MQM members with Karachi could be gauged from the fact that none of their party leaders visited the Cooperative Market to sympathise with the shopkeepers who lost their entire life’s worth in the fire.

MQM member Osama Qadri said he had raised the issue of Cooperative Market tragedy in the House to force the provincial government to come into action. He said it was incompetency and inability of the provincial government that the fire could not be extinguished.

“We visited the market yesterday and will also join the affected owners of the gutted shops at their sit-in,” he said. PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel said the incident of fire was nothing new, rather it had been happening there for years. “Previously, 270 people were burnt alive in a fire incident in Karachi,” he said.