Top court rules judge video legally useless for Nawaz Sharif unless proven genuine

In this file photo, Maryam Nawaz, left, daughter of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, speaks as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif (R) looks on during a press conference in Lahore on July 6, 2019. She alleged at the presser that Arshad Malik, the accountability judge who jailed Sharif for seven years over graft, had done so under duress. (AFP)

• Supreme Court says corruption verdict against jailed ex-PM can be sent for “re-deciding” if video proven authentic
• Says accountability judge’s “sordid” conduct had brought disrepute to entire Pakistani judiciary

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a leaked video of a former accountability court judge sacked over a scandal relating to the jailing of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on corruption charges was of no legal use unless established to be a genuine piece of evidence in a court of law.
At a press conference flanked by senior leaders of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party last month, the leader’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, showed clips of a video of a meeting between accountability judge Arshad Malik and PMLN leader Nasir Butt in which the judge, Maryam alleged, had confessed that he was forced to issue an “unjust” verdict against Sharif by ‘people’ who blackmailed him with a “personal video.” 
The video of Malik’s conversation with Butt was ostensibly filmed in secret, without his permission. 
Last year, Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $25 million on corruption charges by Judge Malik who ruled that the three-time prime minister was unable to prove the source of income that had led to his ownership of the Al-Azizia steel mill in Saudi Arabia. Under Pakistani law, this is taken to prove corruption. On the same day, Malik acquitted Sharif in a second case relating to Flagship Investments, a company established by his son, Hasan Nawaz, that owns luxury properties in Britain.
“The relevant video cannot be of any legal benefit to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif unless it is properly produced before the Islamabad High Court … [and] its genuineness is established and then the same is proved in accordance with the law for it to be treated as evidence in the case,” the top court ruled on Friday. 
The Supreme Court also listed at least 21 requirements for the leaked video to be proved a genuine piece of evidence before the Islamabad High Court, where Sharif’s appeal against the Al-Azizia verdict is pending adjudication.
The court said that if the video was proved to be genuine through a legal process, the Islamabad High Court could either “reappraise the evidence itself” or remand the case to the trial court for “re-deciding.”
“We find that it may not be an appropriate stage for this court to interfere in the matter of the relevant video and its effects,” the court ruled.
In Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court also admonished the sacked accountability judge, saying “his sordid and disgusting conduct has made thousands of honest, upright, fair and proper judges in the country hang their heads in shame.” The court added that the Lahore High Court should initiate disciplinary proceedings against Malik.
Malik denies all charges and says representatives of the Sharif family had offered him bribes repeatedly to rule in the former prime minister’s favor and also threatened him but he did not oblige. The Sharif family denies the accusations.