ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar has termed an alleged leaked audio clip of his conversation with an unidentified person, in which he purportedly passed instructions to sentence former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as “fabricated” and contrary to facts.
His reaction comes after a Pakistani journalist claimed in a story published in a little known website that Nisar, as the top judge of the country, had instructed his sub-ordinates to sentence the former premier and his daughter Maryam at the behest of “institutions” in 2018.
Journalist Ahmed Noorani also shared the audio clip claiming that the former CJP had directed to send Nawaz and Maryam to jail “as institutions wanted to bring [Prime Minister] Imran Khan into power”.
“I have just listened to this audio, this audio is fake which has been attributed to me,” said Justice (retd) Nisar in response to the clip.
“Let me be a little blunt about it; unfortunately, here it is the ‘institutions’ which dictate judgments. In this case, we will have to penalise Mian Sahib [Nawaz Sharif,” the former CJP can be heard saying in the dubious leaked conversation.
“And ‘they’ say ‘we shall bring Khan Sahib’. Regardless of the merit, we will have to do it, and even to his daughter [Maryam],” the judge added.
Responding to Nisar as per the clip, the other person whose identify has not been revealed in the story said, “But, in my view, his daughter doesn’t merit a sentence”.
“You are absolutely correct. I did talk to ‘friends’ that something be done about this but they did not agree. There will be no independence of the judiciary, so let it be,” Nisar purportedly responded.
