A guilty conscience needs no accuser: Nawaz

LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) supremo Nawaz Sharif Monday questioned Justice (retd) Ijazul Ahsan’s untimely resignation, saying that “a guilty conscience needs no accuser”. Justice Ahsan was the Supreme Court’s third senior-most judge, and he had tendered resignation abruptly on January 11, when only eight months were left in his becoming the chief justice of Pakistan, after the retirement of incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa.

Addressing a rally in Lahore’s NA-130 constituency, he said: “I was innocent. The judge who was appointed to monitor my cases [...] and was about to become the chief justice in eight months, resigned because a guilty conscience needs no accuser.” Nawaz Sharif is a candidate from this constituency for February 8 elections.

The PMLN supremo said: “My innocence has been proven, but the judges who convicted me have left office one by one.” He said he was proud of the love of people of his constituency for him, and the relationship would deepen further.

Nawaz pledged that he would leave no stone unturned and re-start development of the country from where it was stopped.

PMLN Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz said, “We are here due to 28th of May, and they were in jail due to 9th of May”, and added that Nawaz Sharif’s competition was with those who orchestrated May 9. She urged people to cast their votes on Feb 8 at any cost because every single vote was important for development of the country. Before the arrival of PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif, an armed man was arrested from the venue of party’s public gathering on Monday. The political power show was held to inaugurate the election office in NA-120 in which a large number of PMLN workers participated. Before the arrival of Nawaz, the police detained an armed man and recovered a pistol from him. The police shifted the man to an undisclosed place for investigation, while the security of the venue was tightened.