LAHORE: Aug. 25 (TNS): Amidst the noisy gathering, affirming the former prime minister’s questions put to them, at a lawyer’s convention held at Aiwan-i-Iqbal Lahore on Friday, Nawaz Sharif said: “I have been fighting for Pakistan’s democracy and the case of its people in the courts.”
“Praising the members of the legal fraternity for their struggle against dictatorship, the former premier recalled that “in the movement against Pervez Musharraf, lawyers had been at the forefront.” “Allama Iqbal, a lawyer, presented Pakistan’s vision. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was also a lawyer,” the former premier remarked in a bid to strike a chord with the gathering.
“You people ran a movement and sacrificed your lives so that the country may be free of dictators,” Sharif said. “Your movement against dictatorship served all the people of the country, not just a small group,” he added. “Today, lawyers again have a responsibility to play a part in the fight for justice in this country,” Nawaz said.
The deposed prime minister told the gathering that he had presented himself for an investigation by the courts as soon as the Panama Papers were leaked in 2016, even though his name “was not in the papers.” “No one responded to my offer to present myself for accountability for several months. And then they came up with a number of justifications for prolonging this process,” he said.
“One verdict was given on April 20; the other was given on July 28. And you know the technicalities of the verdict better than me,” he said.
