ISLAMABAD: Despite Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to remove accountability court judge Arshad Malik from his post after his controversial video leaked, the legal minds are on one page that the decision would have no implication on the judgments he has given against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Islamabad High Court (IHC) Acting Chief Justice Amir Farooq on Friday wrote a letter to the Ministry of Law and Justice to de-notify the judge. Judge Arshad Malik also clarified to the IHC in a letter that the video was edited to malign him.
After IHC’s decision of Judge Arshad Malik’s removal, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz took to Twitter and called for the verdict against her father to be expunged.
However, legal experts have totally a different point of view as they were of the opinion that the PML-N leadership were politicising the issue, that’s why the party leadership demanded that the verdict against Nawaz Sharif be declared null and void.
They were of the view that there would be no immediate relief for Nawaz Sharif.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Advocate Khalid Ranjha categorically stated that the decision of removal of Arshad Malik will have no impact on the decisions he has taken against Nawaz Sharif.
To a question about PML-N’s demand that Nawaz Sharif be released instantly, he said that all “the decisions were made on the basis of evidence; hence, no relief for Nawaz Sharif in the light of the IHC decision.”
Advocate Kamran Murtaza said that the decisions cannot automatically become null and void until these are set aside by the courts.
To a question about PML-N demand, he said that it was political demand as it was not possible legally to release Nawaz Sharif and declared all decisions against him void.
Answering about relief to Nawaz after IHC’s decision, he said that it is rather childish to talk about his release after the IHC decision as the actual decision about his fate could only be taken after the appeal.
Another advocate, Ghulam Dastagir, said that the IHC’s decision to remove Judge Arshad will have no impact on his judgements regarding Nawaz Sharif because the removal of Malik is an administrative decision, not a judicial one.
Talking to a private TV channel, a senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja said that the decisions could not be declared null and void automatically with the removal of the judge. He said that the PML-N has to go for appeal for declaring Nawaz Sharif’s punishment void.
