Attempts to banish ex-Pak PM Nawaz Sharif from politics have failed; Maryam

Islamabad, Sept 18: Attempts to banish Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from politics have miserably failed, his daughter and senior leader of the PML-N party Maryam Nawaz has said as she voiced hope that after the swearing-in of the new top judge, the judiciary will now uphold justice.
Reacting to the swearing-in of Justice Qazi Faez Isa as the 29th Chief Justice of Pakistan on Sunday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Senior Vice President Maryam expressed her hope that now the courts will prioritise justice.
The PML-N party’s chief organiser claimed that attempts to banish her father Nawaz and his brother Shehbaz from politics have miserably failed, as the judiciary will now uphold justice.
Maryam, 49, had been a vocal critic of Isa’s predecessor Justice (retired) Umar Ata Bandial, accusing him of partiality and giving undue favour to the ousted prime minister Imran Khan’s party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf) in some cases.
“The scales of justice would be balanced for each citizen, and PML-N supremo, along with other party leaders, would get rid of injustices done to them by ‘Project Imran’ activists,” The Dawn newspaper quoted her as saying.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s younger brother, also underlined the possibility of the dispensation of justice after the new CJP’s appointment.
In a statement, the former Prime Minister expressed good wishes for Justice Isa, the new chief justice, and hoped the appointment would add to the credibility and reputation of Pakistan’s judiciary, reported The Dawn newspaper.
Nawaz Sharif, 73, who is set to return to the country on October 21, ending his approximately four-year-long self-exile will face all cases in respect of the courts.
Nawaz who has been living in London since 2019 after the Lahore High Court granted him four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment, may see the restoration of a Toshakhana case against him.
In 2020, an accountability court declared him a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicles case.
He is also accused of obtaining luxury cars from the treasury house by paying just 15 per cent of the price of these vehicles.
Nawaz was also convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018.
He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on “medical grounds”. (PTI)