‘Blackmailed, forced’: Maryam on Pakistan judge\'s verdict against Nawaz Sharif

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz on Saturday released a video clip showing an accountability court judge allegedly confessing that he convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif on the pressure of hidden forces.

Addressing a press conference here Maryam, the daughter of jailed premier Nawaz Sharif, said that her father’s entire judicial process was severely compromised. Sharif, 69, has been serving a seven-year prison term at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore since December 24, 2018 when an accountability court convicted him in one of the three corruption cases filed in the wake of the apex court’s July 28, 2017 order in Panama Papers case.

Sharif and his family have denied any wrongdoing and allege that the corruption cases against them were politically motivated.

In the video, Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik of the Islamabad-based accountability court is seen confessing during a conversation with PML-N supporter Nasir Butt that he was “blackmailed and forced (by hidden hands)” to give verdict against Sharif.

“I am guilty conscience and cannot sleep well because of this wrongdoing which I was forced to commit,” he said.

The Imran Khan government termed the leaked video ‘doctored’ and demanded its forensic audit, saying that “it is an attack on the judiciary.”

Maryam said after the revelation of the video her father should not be kept behind the bars any more. She also hinted to use this video in the bail case of Sharif in Islamabad High Court.