Courts should take notice of 'judge's video': Imran.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday said the superior courts should take notice of a video recently released by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz.

"Judiciary is free and independent, and therefore it should take notice of the matter," he reportedly said while chairing a meeting of the government spokespersons in the federal capital on Monday. He said the government will not tolerate attacks on state institutions and will quash every conspiracy against them. He directed the government's media managers to give the opposition party a befitting response for launching attacks on the state institutions.

The prime minister told the meeting that the PML-N has a history of attacking the judiciary. He said that forensic audit of the video will be conducted. He said that the accountability process will not stop despite such moves by the opposition.

Maryam Nawaz on Saturday came out with startling claims regarding the trial of her father and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in corruption references, alleging that the whole process of accountability was severely compromised. Addressing a press conference in Model Town along with entire senior party leadership, including her uncle and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam had claimed that accountability court judge Arshad Malik gave verdict under immense pressure while awarding seven-year imprisonment to Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia Steel Mill reference. She had also played a video recording of judge Arshad Malik and PML-N worker Nasir Butt in which the judge purportedly claimed that he was under immense pressure to give the verdict against Nawaz Sharif.

However, the very next day on Sunday, Judge Arshad Malik hit back at Maryam Nawaz, calling the so-called video evidence presented by her at a press conference a day earlier 'fake and assumptive'. "The videos shown during the press conference are fake and based on lies and assumptions," the judge said in a press release issued by his office. "The videos shown during the press conference are fake and based on lies and assumptions. Therefore, legal action should be taken against those individuals involved in this," he had demanded.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has previously dismissed Maryam Nawaz's claims, saying they can only be considered authentic after a forensic audit of the video. "A baseless story was concocted for their own vested interests to make the...