ISLAMABAD: A day after recording her statement before the accountability court in the Avenfield apartments reference, Maryam Nawaz alleged that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was following the agenda of implicating the entire Sharif family by any means whatsoever.

Addressing a press conference held in Punjab House on Tuesday, Ms Nawaz said she wanted to tell the people what she had testified before the court in response to the question about the reason for her implication in the Avenfield properties case.

She read out the entire statement that she had recorded under Section 342 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC). However, she did not allow journalists to ask any questions and put off the question answer session for some other occasion.

Reading out her statement, she said: “Despite not figuring anywhere in Supreme Court’s judgement of April 20, 2017, the reason I was dragged into the case finds its origin in “will teach a lesson” mindset that has threatened, harassed and victimised one who refused to accept the excesses, those who had the courage to stand up to injustice and those who have dared to question the rotten, entrenched practice of bringing the elected prime ministers to their knees, on one pretext or the other, be it religion, corruption or even ‘ghaddari’ [treason].

Reads out her court testimony at press conference without taking questions

“Defiling them … disgracing them ... harassing them ... pressurising them into submission ... should they attempt to exercise or exert the authority conferred upon them by the Constitution.

“I know why this corruption reference is being framed against me. It is just to pressurise my father who has refused to the dictates and now they want to make him agree whatever they say to put his daughter in trouble,” she said.

She said: “My implication in this case is prompted by mala fide intention and extraneous consideration. I have been falsely involved on account of my commitment to the political cause of true democracy, rule of law and Constitution and for siding with my father who has to his credit excellent performance in terms of public welfare and well-being of the nation at the expense of illegal incarceration and exile for a number of years on account of political victimisation.

“Why is she facing this case? Why she had to appear again and again before a JIT which had been formed through WhatsApp calls. More than 70 times I appeared before this court and still this is going on. I know why I am being kept away from my mother who is suffering from the fatal disease of cancer and I also know that in 70 years of Pakistan history no women had ever appeared before the court these many times. My only crime is that I am daughter of Nawaz Sharif but just like other brave and proud daughters of Pakistan, I am standing firm with my father.

My crime is that I consider my father truthful. I am standing with his narrative. To put my father’s love for me to a test, the perpetrators have involved me in this case. Nawaz Sharif is the one who refused to surrender before any kind of hardships, who refused to resign when guns took aim at him, he refused to world pressure and made Pakistan a nuclear power and Nawaz Sharif is the one who bravely suffered every kind of atrocities being committed against him by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“The perpetrators knew that when a case would be framed against his daughter, she would be dragged into the court, a traditional father would succumb to pressure and would agree to their terms and conditions.

“The people who think like that neither understood Nawaz Sharif nor his daughter. My father took a stand against the 70-year-old disease being faced by the country. He is struggling for the welfare of the people of Pakistan and to protect their right to vote and democracy. In this struggle, I am standing with my father for the reason that I am also daughter of Pakistan that has been made a laughing stock in the world,” said Ms Nawaz.

She said the perpetrators deviated from the tradition of giving respect to daughters. They should know Maryam Nawaz was not a weakness but strength of Nawaz Sharif and would not let her father’s head bow down, she reiterated.

About the case, she said it was a matter of record that the trust deed declaration and the so-called BVI letters were produced before the court in Panama Papers case and similar nature of allegations against herself were the subject matter, yet the Supreme Court in its April 20, 2017 order did not include herself or her husband in the respondents who were directed to appear before the JIT for investigation. “It stands amply demonstrated by now in this trial that the JIT was on an agenda to implicate the whole family by any means whatsoever.”

She said JIT head Wajid Zia admitted that none of the witnesses he had examined made any incriminating statement against her nor there was any other iota of evidence available with the JIT against her. The malice on the part of the JIT flouts on the surface. The manner in which Robert Radley was engaged through Quist Solicitor, the requests were sent for mutual legal assistance, and concealment of the British Virgin Island (BVI) response declining the MLA request speak volumes of mala fide intent on part of the JIT. The JIT in its venom and quest to implicate her had even resorted to concoct and fabricate evidence against her, she claimed.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018