Saqib Nisar admits meeting ex-DG ISI Faiz Hamid multiple times

• Saqib Nisar says ex-PM asked him to suggest Shehzad Akbar's replacement.
• Former CJP says he did not offer any advice to Imran Khan.
• PML-N targeting judiciary, laments Nisar. 

KARACHI: Former chief justice (CJP) Saqib Nisar has revealed that he had met former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid multiple times during his time as the top judge of the country.

In an interview with Daily Jang, the former CJP shared that he had met the former spy chief for the first time on the issue of missing persons and continued meeting him later as well.

Justice (retd) Nisar also revealed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan had approached him to seek guidelines on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases, however, he refused to assist.

The former CJP claimed that he had only met the PTI chief twice.

“The first meeting was held when he was the prime minister and the second was held afterwards when he was no more PM,” said the former top judge of the country.

Justice (retd) Nisar said that in the first meeting, the PTI chief had sought his guidance on the NAB cases as they were going in vain. He also claimed that the former prime minister had requested his (Nisar's) to suggest a suitable replacement for Shehzad Akbar — the then accountability czar.

The former CJP claimed that he did not offer any advice to the former prime minister and rather suggested he take decisions on his own. On his second meeting, the former CJP said that he had advised the PTI chief not to talk about the opening courts at midnight.

He said that he had suggested that Khan should refrain from unduly criticising the judiciary so as not to ruin it.

In the interview, Justice (retd) Nisar also clarified that he was not in touch with the current judges in the country.

He also disclosed that he had met former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa twice. "The former army chief had met for the first time to donate while the second meeting was held sometime earlier in Lahore."

The former CJP claimed that Bajwa had told him that he had come to Lahore as he wanted to meet his friends. He maintained that he had not discussed General (retd) Bajwa during his meeting with Imran Khan.

‘Being targeted for standing for justice’

On the continued attack by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the former chief justice said that Maryam Nawaz is ridiculing him by calling him “Baba Dam”.

Nisar said that he was being targeted because he stood for the cause of justice. Talking about what he called an “anti-judiciary statement” of Maryam Nawaz, he said that she wanted to create a situation of political strife in the country and she wanted to achieve her vested interests.

The former top judge believes that the PML-N was out of achievements which is why it was targeting the judiciary. 

He said the PML-N had hoped that in the capacity of the chief justice, he would honour his past ties with them, but instead he had adhered to the cause of justice and that was why he had been targeted since his retirement.

Talking about Maryam, he said that it was a tragedy for someone when their offspring became ill-mannered and didn’t know how to talk about any elder person.

The former CJP said that his children were amused by seeing that he had again been revived by the PML-N. He said that he did not have any answer to the political lies of Maryam Nawaz and the PML-N. He said two attempts of the PML-N in the past to defame him had failed.

“The first attempt was made through a fake audio recording and the second was made through Justice Shamim,” he added.