- Saad Rafique urges SC to take notice of exclusion of party leaders, media from hearing
ISLAMABAD: Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique Monday said that the Supreme Court and accountability court (AC) should take notice of restrictions on party workers and media in accountability court’s premises.
“Standard operating procedures which were chalked out in consultation with the accountability court were not followed in the case of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s trial,” he said while talking to media here.
The minister said that the party workers and journalists were not allowed to enter the court despite an entry list being issued.
To a question, he replied, “there is no need for Ahsan Iqbal to resign. Some people are trying to provoke us, but we will not indulge in any dispute and solve the matter amicably.
The situation in the country is critical and Pakistan could not endure any controversy at this stage. We have to keep the situation calm”.
Saad Rafique said that the accountability court was not an open court but it was a closed court and everybody could see what was being done in the name of justice.
Meanwhile, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed on Monday called the hearing of three corruption references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ‘a hijacked trial’.
Responding to a question outside the accountability court, Rasheed said: “it is not an open trial, in fact, it is a hijacked trial. The Supreme Court will tell you who hijacked it as the implementation of laws is their mandate.”
He added that “today we are paying the price for our efforts for democracy in the country. And we will continue to pay this price.”
He said that the court lockdown has clearly shown that in the last 70-year history of Pakistan, the “power rests with someone while the authority is enjoyed by the other”.
Without taking the name of former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf, who is also facing a number of court cases, he said a “criminal has absconded and an innocent is in the court”.
When asked why then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan facilitated the exit of former military ruler out of the country, he said: “Nisar couldn’t help us, how could he help him in his release”.
According to reports, several PML-N leaders, including Raja Zafarul Haq, Ahsan Iqbal, Saad Rafiq, Daniyal Aziz, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Maiza Hameed, Islamabad mayor and several MNAs, were denied entry to the accountability court where three corruption references against the Sharif family were being heard. Later, Daniyal Aziz and Maiza were allowed to enter.
