LHC sacks controversial judge who convicted Nawaz Sharif

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Qasim Khan on Friday dismissed controversial judge Arshad Malik from his post, Geo reported.

According to reports, the decision was taken by the administration committee of the LHC, which was chaired by LHC CJ and attended by seven other senior judges, including justices Ameer Bhatti, Malik Shahzad Khan, Ayesha Malik, Shahid Waheed and Ali Baqar Najafi.

The career of the accountability court judge, who had sentenced former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference, went down the hill after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in 2019 released a video clip purportedly showing him admitting to a lack of evidence against the ousted former premier in the same case.

READ: ‘Judge who convicted Nawaz to be removed from post’

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had showed the video and read out its transcript at a press conference lasting more than an hour.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and other senior party leaders had accompanied Maryam at the press conference at the time.

The video purportedly showed the accountability court judge speaking to a PML-N worker named Nasir Butt and claiming that he was coerced to hand down the prison sentence against Nawaz despite there being no proof of corruption against the deposed premier.

READ: ‘Maryam distances herself from NAB judge’s scandalous video’

PML-N leadership has since been demanding that Nawaz’s sentence be nullified. The convicted ex-PM is already out of prison to seek medical treatment in London.