Maryam Nawaz criticises CJP’s remarks during SC hearing

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief organiser Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday took exception to Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial statement during the Punjab polls hearing, saying that the “CJP did not get emotional when she was thrown in jail”.

Her remarks come after the CJP said certain lawmakers speaking in the National Assembly had served jail terms and were declared traitors in the past.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also criticised the CJP, saying that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had put all opposition members, including him, in jail on fake charges.

All of them were released from jail on orders from courts, he said, adding that the “double standards” being enforced by courts should end and Imran Khan should receive the similar treatment that the PML-N did.

Addressing a lawyers’ convention in Rawalpindi today, Maryam said that the politicians, whom the chief mentioned in his remarks, went to jail on orders of former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed.

She said the CJP had gotten emotional during the election delay case hearing, and should have gotten emotional when she spent five months in Adiala Jail and when her father Nawaz Sharif was ousted on the basis of an expired Iqama.

“I want to ask the CJP today … do you not believe that going to jail for an ideology is something that should be taken pride in?” she asked.

Speaking about the SC’s verdict, Maryam said the CJP’s fellow judges are not accepting his decisions, yet he is urging the nation to accept them.

“How can the CJP expect us to accept a decision that even his brother judges are not accepting? He excluded the judges who had raised legal reservations and instead brought those judges who favoured him,” she said.