Campaign against judges prepared in haste: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has alleged that the funding for the function addressed by Maryam Nawaz at a hotel here was illegal, adding that campaign against the judges was prepared in a hurry,

Asked about the speeches of Nawaz Sharif in Lahore and Maryam Nawaz at a hotel in Islamabad, the minister said that Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub has written a letter to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regarding the alleged ‘illegal funding’ of the event and a comprehensive investigation has been launched.

Talking to journalists here, Fawad had a piece of advice for the opposition, as he urged them to stop campaigning against the judiciary and the army. “Our Constitution protects these two institutions, so respect them. You can target both institutions through social media or your leaders, which is not appropriate and a clear violation of the Constitution.

Fawad contended that as soon as the cases of Nawaz Sharif or Maryam Nawaz start going on in the court, sometimes a leak comes, sometimes a video comes, sometimes something comes, but those receipts that the whole nation is waiting for do not come.

The minister said that this case was not of a single judge, this scandal was not given by any newspaper, establishment but it was an international investigation in which Nawaz Sharif was named among the most notorious corrupt rulers of the world and it was said that he has four apartments in Mayfair where no prime minister of the United Kingdom could afford an apartment.

He said that when these apartments were investigated and asked who owned them, Maryam Nawaz said that ‘I do not have any property in Pakistan, what to talk of having even in London, after which fake document of Calibri font was presented, which proved to be fake, they could neither present any evidence before the parliament, nor could they present evidence before the Supreme Court, the public and the media, nor could they present this evidence in any trial court.

Fawad said that this is not a case of any judge or court, he [Nawaz] had the facility at every opportunity that if there was any evidence he would present it. PTI Chairman Imran Khan was also sued that he owned flat in London, and he gave 40-year old receipts, although Imran Khan had never held any position in the government, similarly if they had, they would have presented it in court but have not been able to present any evidence yet.

He said that every child in Pakistan knows what the times of Nawaz Sharif and Zardari were like and how much corruption took place during their regimes.

Fawad emphasised that “we want the Election Commission to move fast and fulfill its responsibility on the issue of overseas Pakistanis voting and electronic voting machine. Now millions of people living outside Pakistan have to vote. The interior minister has been directed to look into the matter of issuing passports and provide facilities in this regard so that ordinary Pakistanis do not face any difficulty.

The minister said that with the approval of IMF programme, Pakistan and its economy have been strengthened; good news have been received in Pakistan this week. “We saw that the Parliament passed laws for overseas Pakistanis, overseas Pakistanis got the right to vote, electronic voting machine bill was approved and now the IMF programme was also approved.

Fawad Chaudhry said that it seems that the campaign against the judges was prepared in a hurry. Meanwhile, as the ‘war of words and leaks’ escalates, Fawad posted on his Twitter account an old video of former chief justice Saqib Nisar in which he is addressing a function. At the end of the video, the alleged viral audio of Justice (R) Saqib Nisar has also been included, which is being hotly discussed in political and social circles. The video also includes a few words from the former chief justice’s speech in his alleged audio, suggesting that the alleged viral audio was edited and that his words were taken from the video.

The minister tweeted that it seems that the campaign against the judges was prepared in a hurry. All the characters are behind this vicious campaign are ‘obvious’: it is hoped that the courts will not adopt a lenient approach to the matter and take this vicious campaign to its logical conclusion.