ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Tuesday that like every other citizen, the Sharif family also had a right to fair trial and provision of justice.
She was speaking at a joint press conference along with MNA Daniyal Aziz.
“The prime minister and his family respect the superior judiciary and are fully trying to assist the court and the joint investigation team in the Panama case,” she said.
She strongly dispelled the impression that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership had any reservations about the formation of JIT by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “If the prime minister had any doubt he would not have written a letter for the formation of a judicial commission and instead would have claimed immunity and privileges available to him and his family under the law of the land,” she said.
“Even the PML-N did not object to the association of the two biased members with the JIT, it only objected to their biased conduct when Tariq Shafi was grilled and threatened with dire consequences,” she said.
The minister said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan should take notice of the revelation made in a news report by Ansar Abbasi regarding the inclusion of members in the JIT. “If the report is correct, it might create doubts about the neutrality of the JIT,” she said.
“Nawaz Sharif relinquished his legal rights which were available to him under the Constitution as he wanted that the reality of baseless allegations against his family to be exposed at the level of the SC,” she said.
The minister recalled that the SC had first declared the petition of Imran Khan as frivolous.
“The Sharif family even provided those documents to the SC which were decades old. On the contrary, Imran Khan was unable to provide 10-year old documents and money trail of his property, and admitted before the court that he did not possess any record prior to the last 10 years,” she said.
Marriyum said that the Sharif family neither sought immunity, nor challenged the admissibility of the case in the court. “The sons of the prime minister had the option not to appear before the JIT, but they did not seek any privilege,” she said.
The minister said Imran Khan had refused to appear before the judge in the anti-terrorism court and in the foreign funding case in the Election Commission of Pakistan failed to explain his financial matters.
“Imran Khan had adopted an insulting posture towards the constitutional institutions,” she said.
She said Imran Khan had been asking for over 30-year old record from the Sharif family though the prime minister’s sons were doing business abroad and were non-resident Pakistanis, and as such were not answerable to the court.
The minister said the lawyer of Hussain Nawaz raised the issue that two JIT members had bias by association and the SC did not reject his point of view. “Rather the court took notes and gave the observation that if it found any doubt about the conduct of the said members of the JIT, it would take appropriate notice,” she said. She said the JIT members should have disclosed their past affiliations.
“Some elements tried to create panic about appearance of an ambulance that arrived at the offices of JIT. The JIT letter was leaked to the press and an impression was given that Hussain Nawaz was not replying to the questions of the JIT, which is wrong and unfounded,” she said.
To a question about loadshedding, the minister said the government would take steps to resolve technical issues in the distribution and transmission of the electricity and the provinces would be taken onboard for timely repair of out of order equipment.
