Samaa TV, a private news channel ran a news story and claimed that the former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar’s clip appears to be pieced together from two separate speeches of former CJP.
Claims of Samaa TV:
The two speeches were made by former CJP Nisar on January 22, 2018, and February 22, 2018. The former speech was made in an address to a judicial conference, while the latter was made while addressing a ceremony of Islamabad High Court Bar, reports Samaa.
“Some phrases in the audio clip are exact matches with parts of speeches the former CJP did on the two occasions,” claims Samaa.
Fawad Chaudhry: “Unfortunately a specific group is always used in such situations. They are the ones who bring such kinds of leaks and affidavits to the limelight.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry while speaking on Geo News programme, ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ said that the government never claimed that Nisar’s audio was “pieced together” but Samaa TV ran a “splendid investigative report and it is through their findings that we have found out that the alleged audio has been put together through different chunks of [Nisar’s] speech.”
Fawad further added that the news channel contacted Garret Discovery, the firm which checked the alleged audiotape of the CJP Nisar. “The company did not comment on the development and has refused to own it,” said Fawad.
Anchorperson Shahzeb Khanzada questioned the minister that the report put together by Samaa TV missed out on a few important points.
Khanzada read out the missing points to Fawad and questioned him, “Does the report presented by Samaa TV also include the part where [Saqib Nisar could be allegedly heard saying] Mian Sahib [Nawaz Sharif] needs to be punished? Was it said that Khan Sahib [Imran Khan] has to be brought [into power]? It has to be done. Regardless of the merit, we will have to do it (sentence Nawaz Sharif), and even to his daughter. Did Samaa TV cater to these statements as well?”
Fawad ignored the question and asked Khanzada to play the video prepared by Samaa on his programme and he will understand better.”
“I have seen the video, were these three sentences in the video?” questioned Khanzada.
Fawad again replied, “Play the video and you will understand better.”
The minister went on to say that an environment is created every time a case of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz comes to the surface.
“Unfortunately a specific group is always used in such situations. They are the ones who bring such kinds of leaks and affidavits to the limelight,” said Fawad.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi: “It is not the work of news channels but that of the judges to reach a conclusion and find facts in this matter.”
PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the party was not behind the audio and demanded an impartial inquiry into it.
“It is not the work of news channels but that of the judges to reach a conclusion and find facts in this matter,” said Abbasi.
“We are ready to face the consequences if the probe finds out that it is a conspiracy,” he said.
“Whoever breaks the law [should be punished] even if it’s the chief justice of the country. The government should not be concerned with this,” said Khaqan.
Garret Discovery: “We did perform work for FactFocus. We have no problem releasing details as long as our client signs an agreement allowing us to do so.”
In a chat with a Garret Discovery representative, Dawn told the US firm that they are mentioned in a story about a former Pakistani chief justice and asked what their findings were.
“We did perform work for FactFocus. As part of our standard agreement, we have a confidentiality clause that prohibits us from speaking about the scope of work or work we performed,” the representative responded.
“We have no problem releasing details as long as our client signs an agreement allowing us to do so. Please contact FactFocus with any inquiries as to the work we performed and discuss with them any release of information. We will not comment anymore on this issue until that time.”
‘His daughter [Maryam Nawaz] doesn’t merit a sentence, still, we will have to do it’: Alleged audio tape of CJP Nisar
November 21, leaked audio of conversation allegedly claims that Saqib Nisar was the person who passed on the directions of handing down conviction to Mian Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz only because the “institutions” wanted the former prime minister penalised in order to bring ahead Imran Khan, reported Ahmed Noorani for FactFocus.
