Maryam Nawaz snipes at Chief Justice of Pakistan

Rawalpindi: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday blasted Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial for his remarks on the parliamentarians during a hearing of the Punjab election delay case, a media outlet reported.

“When the parliamentarians were talking about law and Constitution, you (CJP) taunted them. Do you know how prideful it is to go to jail for an ideology?” said the PML-N leader while addressing a lawyers’ convention in Rawalpindi.

Maryam’s comments came after CJP remarked that certain lawmakers speaking on the floor of the National Assembly had served jail terms and were declared traitors in the past, Geo News reported.

“Today, when you go to parliament, you find people (…) who were, until yesterday, in captivity, imprisoned, declared traitors. They are now talking over there, and being respected because they are representatives of the people.”

His remarks were also criticised by Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who said that it was a matter of pride for him that he had been released by the high court on merit in false and fabricated cases, the media outlet reported.

“It is our right under the Constitution to express our views in the parliament,” he said.

Maryam said that the chief justice had gotten emotional during the election delay case hearing, adding that he should have gotten emotional when “I spent five months in Adiala Jail and five months in NAB’s (National Accountability Bureau) custody”.

Referring to her imprisonment, Maryam said that she was in Adiala Jail for 5 months, but the chief justice did not get emotional at that time.

Moving on to arch-rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, Maryam said that the ex-chief of Inter-Services Intelligence General (retd) Faiz Hameed was the biggest facilitator of the former premier, the report said.