Nawaz sees pre-poll rigging in his disqualification

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said his disqualification as prime minister and now as the party president was tantamount to pre-poll rigging.

Nawaz Sharif said prosecution witness Robert William Radley, during cross examination on video link in the accountability court, had supported their stance that the Calibri font was available in 2005.

“The answers of the JIT report have started coming and the prosecution witness has also supported our stance that the Calibri font was available during the year 2005,” said Nawaz Sharif while talking to media persons outside the accountability court after hearing of corruption references.

Nawaz regretted that when nothing was found in the reference, then supplementary references were floated, saying the same attempt was also bound to fail. Nawaz said that now the third decision is to be announced against him following his ouster as the PML-N president and disqualification as the prime minister. “The third decision is coming again through which I will be disqualified,” he said, pointing out that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had also been stopped from contesting the Senate elections.

Referring to decisions of the Supreme Court, the former prime minister said all the political decisions which have been announced since Justice Munir verdict would not be written in golden words. “Hardly there is any political decision since Justice Munir verdict which will be written in golden words. All the decision will be written with black words,” he said, adding that he was disqualified on basis of ‘Iqama’ and the nation had not accepted that decision.

Responding to a question that the Supreme Court says that it had respect for the political leadership, he said, “On one hand, we were dubbed godfathers, Sicilian mafia and dacoits and then they say they respect political leadership.”

He said the Supreme Court decision disqualifying him was first such decision in a non-martial law regime. Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz said that Radley admitted creator of Calibri font was even awarded in 2005. “Whether we are treated with justice, the truth will prevail,” she said.

Maryam said that Hamza Shahbaz and she are on the same page. In a tweet she said: "You can suppress and distort the truth temporarily but sooner or later, it is to surface, it is to prevail, it is to triumph."

About the witness's admission that Calibri font was available in 2005, she tweeted: "I was waiting for the day. I knew the witness they were banking on would be their watershed. I knew he could not lie. I had faith in Allah."