Sharif objects to 'back to jail' comments of Pak info minister

Pakistan's deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif's lawyers on Friday urged an accountability court to take notice of Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry's statement claiming the PML-N party supremo will "definitely go to prison again".

A top Pakistani court last month suspended the jail sentences of Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield corruption case, one of the three corruption cases faced by the three-time prime minister. The trio were released from a jail following the court order.

Sharif's lawyers Khawaja Haris and Zubair Khalid asked Accountability Judge Arshad Malik to take cognizance of Chaudhry's remarks on the Hill Metal Establishment case, in which the minister had stated that the former premier would go to prison again, Dawn newspaper reported.

Haris said that the court should take action against "the minister giving statements about you [the court] and Nawaz Sharif's arrest. This falls in your jurisdiction and you should take action against it."
To this, Judge Malik said: "Was Chaudhry's statement general or was it a statement specifically targeting the court?"
He added: "The Opposition neither has any leadership nor any vision, they are only playing politics to save their money and more than fifty of them will go to jail."