This is a hijacked trial, says Pervaiz Rasheed

ISLAMABAD: 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 Gen (retd) 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.”

Separately, Federal Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, while speaking to Geo News, said that the accountability court judge and Supreme Court's monitoring judge should take notice of this situation [of disallowing media and lawyers from attending the hearing].

"Today we have seen a very unfortunate situation. We can’t see justice being served in the higher courts nor here," he said.

Rafique said that he thinks that the situation is because of faulty local arrangements rather than orders from any high-ups.

When asked to comment on Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal's threat of resignation, Rafique said it is understandable that Iqbal is upset, but "resigning is not the answer...it is the easiest thing to do".