ISLAMABAD - Acting Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Aamer Farooq Thursday held a meeting with Accountability Court (AC) judge Arshad Malik in the backdrop a “leaked video” wherein he apparently appears confessing before a PML-N sympathiser that he was “pressurised and blackmailed” to convict former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia reference. According to sources, the acting CJ of IHC had called judge Arshad Malik to discuss the issue of his leaked video.
Although, no official statement was issued to the media regarding the meeting yet there is solid likelihood that the agenda of the meeting was to deliberate over the ‘leaked’ video shared by PML-N leadership during a news conference last week.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had also met acting CJ of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq in his chambers to discuss the same matter.
It was July 6 when PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz along with other PML-N leader in a press conference had shown the video wherein it was claimed that the judge of an accountability court confessed he had been “pressurised and blackmailed” to convict her father in the Al-Azizia reference. A video containing the judge’s alleged confession during his conversation with a ‘sympathizer’ of the PML-N, Nasir Butt, was screened during a hurriedly called presser at the party’s provincial headquarters in Model Town.
In this regard, Prime Minister Imran Khan, while chairing a meeting of the government spokespersons in the federal capital on Monday said that his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government must avoid becoming party in the video scandal surrounding around accountability court judge Arshad Malik’s alleged confession of convicting former PM Nawaz Sharif under duress. “Judiciary is free and independent, [and therefore] it should take notice of the matter,” he said.
Similarly, Accountability Court judge Arshad Malik on Sunday in a press release refuted Maryam Nawaz’s claim that he was blackmailed into sending former prime minister Nawaz Sharif behind bars in Al-Azizia case.
