Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar on Monday said that judges don’t write judgments to ‘please’ someone or to ‘settle scores’, a day after ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter criticised the judiciary for disqualifying her father in the Panama Papers case.
In its landmark verdict earlier this year, the Supreme Court’s five-judge larger bench had unanimously disqualified Sharif as Prime Minister due to his failure to disclose ‘unwithdrawn receivables, constituting assets’ in his nomination papers filed ahead of the 2013 general elections.
Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz yesterday had said that the judges’ oaths should now include words denoting that their decisions are ‘merit-based and judicious.’
Terming her father’s disqualification a joke, 43-year-old Maryam, who is apparently being groomed to succeed Sharif, wondered if the judges announced the decision because of some grudge or under pressure.
“I don’t know if the (judges arrived at this) decision because of some (personal) grudge or (they were) under some pressure, holding our three generations accountable and internal family affairs were discussed during court proceedings,” she said at an election rally.
Apparently responding to her remarks, Chief Justice Nisar said judges don’t write judgments to ‘settle scores’.