Islamabad: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that recent actions by the top judiciary indicate that a regime worse than a martial law has been imposed across Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters inside the accountability court in Islamabad, Sharif claimed: “What is prevalent in the country is not democracy, but the worst kind of dictatorship under [Chief Justice Mian] Saqib Nisar.”
“What is happening in the country is not less than a ‘judicial martial law’,” said the former prime minister, who returned from London late on Sunday after seeing his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who has been undergoing cancer treatment there.
Criticising recent judgements by the courts as “illogical”, Sharif said the alleged silencing of 220 million people of Pakistan would not be acceptable to him.
“These many restrictions were not even imposed during the martial laws that we are seeing today,” he remarked.
The former premier claimed serious efforts are being made convict him in the corruption references being heard by the accountability court, which he said were an attempt “to make the five judges successful” — a reference to the five-member SC bench which had disqualified him last year in the Panama Papers case.
Directing his criticism at the CJP once again, Sharif said Justice Nisar visits hospitals regularly and talks about vegetable prices, but “he should also visit the home of an oppressed person whose case hasn’t been decided for 20 years”.
“It is not your job to summon the chief minister and make the government stand in the line,” he said, addressing the CJP.
The Supreme Court, under its 2018 agenda, is focusing on human rights issues, particularly those relating to the people’s right to quality education and healthcare. However, this course of action is also being seen as an overstepping of boundaries by the apex court, similar to the Iftikhar Chaudhry era.
However, the chief justice has stood by the court’s actions, reiterating that such criticism will not deter him from exercising what he considers is his “constitutional right”.
