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Updated 19 Dec, 2017 11:29pm

Scale of justice outside court should stand for 'insaf' and not Tehreek-i-Insaf: Nawaz

Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said he would not stand for the "double standards and the blatant murder of justice", while discussing the Supreme Court's (SC) recent verdict in the disqualification case against Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen.

Speaking to media representatives at the premises of the accountability court, Sharif said: "The court's double standards and this blatant murder of justice will not be tolerated, not by the PML-N and neither by this nation."

The former premier was speaking to reporters during a break in hearing of the National Accountability Bureau's corruption referemce filed against him.

Discussing the apex court's decision to send the petition against PTI's alleged foreign funding to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Sharif said: "They have given the ECP the past five years (for checking PTI's financial records) because the calculation has already been done; they know that whatever happened did not happen in those five years."

"We will remain steadfast in the face of this verdict and take the matter to the people," Sharif said, once again threatening to start a movement against the SC's verdict.

"This scale of justice outside the court should stand for insaf, not for Tehreek-i-Insaf," Sharif remarked sarcastically as he concluded his tirade.

In today's hearing at the accountability court, the prosecution presented a witness, Yasir Bashir, who is a branch manager for a private bank. Bashir testified to providing NAB with details about the bank accounts of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.

Bashir also provided the court details about various transactions that took place from the accounts of Maryam and the former prime minister.

He told the court that there were no discrepancies found in Maryam's bank details and that the bank never received any complaints about her account.

While cross questioning the witness, Khawaja Haris, the lawyer representing Nawaz and Maryam, pointed out that Bashir had not compiled the documents presented to NAB himself. Haris added that had Bashir done so, he would have remembered the transaction amounts for both accounts by heart.

The next witness, NAB's Shakeel Anjum Nagra recorded his statement regarding receiving certified copies of the joint investigation team's (JIT) report and forwarding it to the relevant departments.

Afaq Ahmed, a director of the Foreign Ministry, gave the court details about the letter written by former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim to the JIT chief Wajid Zia.

Ahmad told the court that the Pakistan embassy received the letter on May 28; it was passed on to the JIT chief on May 30.

"The JIT summoned me through a letter written to the secretary of foreign affairs on May 31," Ahmad told the court.

Ahmad told the court that he answered the summons and presented himself before the JIT on June 1 to record his statement.

The court has summoned the next two witnesses in the case to present themselves in court on Wednesday, January 3.

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