The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has called for declaring the verdict in Al-Azizia reference against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif null and void and his release forthwith following the Islamabad High Court (IHC)'s decision to remove accountability court judge Arshad Malik from his post. PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and Vice President Maryam Nawaz have requested the superior judiciary to declare former prime minister's sentence null and void. Shahbaz said after the removal of judge Arshad Malik from his post, keeping Nawaz Sharif imprisoned is not appropriate. While calling for the immediate release of Nawaz Sharif, he said the verdict against Nawaz had become void and there was no justification for keeping Nawaz imprisoned. "Keeping Nawaz Sharif in jail for even a minute is now illegal," he said.
Maryam Nawaz in a series of tweet said that she is looking towards the judiciary for justice. "Nawaz should be released from prison without any delay and this issue is no longer confined to Nawaz only," she said. Maryam said the matter was not about the removal of a judge instead it was about suspending the verdict that the judge had issued. "The matter is about removing the verdict, which this judge had given under pressure," she said.
It may be noted that on December 4, 2018, AC Judge Arshad Malik awarded seven years imprisonment to Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference. The Judge, however, acquitted Nawaz in a second reference related to Flagship Investments, saying "there was no case against Nawaz".
Maryam said: "The clear meaning of the removal of the judge is that the judiciary has accepted the truth. If this is the case, how can a verdict by this judge being maintained?" She asked why her father was not being released if the judge, who had given the verdict in the case against him, was removed. Maryam asked: "A judge was found guilty of misconduct and was removed from his post; how can the subject of his misconduct be punished?"
She said an individual, who had remained the prime minister of Pakistan three times, was behind bars despite being proven to be innocent today. "Is it enough to only remove the judge? Certainly not," she wrote. "Now this matter is not restricted just to Nawaz Sharif. I am turning to the judiciary for justice. I will keep waiting," she said Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi accompanied by the PML-N leaders Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer, Saira Afzal Tarar and others told media here on Friday that after removal of AC Judge Arshad Malik, the real test is of the judiciary and the incumbent government. He said after the removal of AC judge, the legal basis for the verdict against Nawaz had automatically ended while there is no worth of affidavit of Arshad Malik. "After the removal of the judge, it has proven that the facts that Maryam Nawaz brought before the people of Pakistan were correct," Abbasi said.
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