FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: In an apparent reaction to the remarks of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that the language judges are using in their remarks is not “appropriate”.

Talking to media persons after appearing before Accountability Court, Sharif said, “Now they are using words such as thieves and robbers. Is this not contempt of their own office?” He further said if there is any law to bring them under the domain of contempt.

The former prime minister asked whether or not there is a difference between the language of Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan and Chief Justice of Pakistan. He added that the PTI chairman and the judges are using the same language nowadays.

Sharif said that the judges who took oath under Pervez Musharraf are called the PCO judges. “Will PCO judges now give us lessons on morality?” he asked, adding, “We are not ready to accept such a lesson.”

He said, “Every person has self-respect and we will not compromise on our self-respect.”

Earlier, Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and his son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) appeared before Accountability Court, which is hearing three corruption references against them, amid tight security arrangements.

The court recorded the statements of four prosecution witnesses – Syed Mubashir Tauqeer, Director External Publicity, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Muhammad Sultan Nazir, Deputy Director NAB Lahore, Waqas Ahmad, an employee of a private TV channel, and Zavir Mehmood, Assistant Director NAB.

Prosecution witness Mubashir Tauqeer told the court that he had provided a CD and 12 pages of transcript of Hassan Nawaz’s interview to BBC. During cross-examination when he was asked a question by defense counsel Amjad Pervez, the witness said that the investigation officer did not record his statement.

Pervez questioned the witness that according to the letter he had written to NAB, the transcript of Hassan Nawaz’s interview was prepared by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

Tauqeer said, “Yes, the transcript of interview was prepared by the APP.”

The witness further said that he did not know the person who prepared the transcript of the interview in the APP.

To a question of defence counsel, the witness said he had not produced any letter to the investigation officer which shows that the APP had certified the contents of interview. Replying to a question, Tauqeer said he did not know who had uploaded Hassan Nawaz’s interview on Youtube.

While testifying before the court, another prosecution witness Waqas Ahmad said that he had produced CD and verified transcript of two TV programmes to the NAB investigators. “I have joined investigation on January 10, 2018 and they recorded my statement,” he said.

During cross-examination, the defense counsel asked Ahmad, “Have you told investigation officer while recoding your statement that you provided certified copies of transcript to him?” The witness replied in the affirmative.

When asked that the transcript has no stamp, the witness said that he signed the transcript.

Prosecution witness Deputy Director NAB Lahore Muhammad Sultan Nazir and Assistant Director NAB Zavir Mehmood also recorded their statements.

Following the cross-examination of witnesses, the court adjourned the hearing till Feb 22.