New Delhi: The landmark verdict in which a Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in jail on corruption charges related to four luxury London flats is riddled with glaring typos and spelling mistakes.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court handed down the verdict after a series of delays, but the errors still stand out.
Throughout the judgment, Judge Muhammad Bashir referred to the Qatari prince as ‘Qattery’ prince. Also, he referred to Errol George, director of the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) of the British Virgin Islands whom the JIT had contacted for information about the beneficial ownership of the Avenfield apartments, as ‘Errel Jeorge’ or ‘Erel George’.
The court had ruled that the Avenfield apartments of the Sharif family, in their possession since 1993, shall be seized by the federal government.
While rejecting the defence argument that certain mutual legal assistance (MLA) responses were not admissible in evidence, the judge wrote: “Response of MLA cannot be brushacite simply on technical grounds …”
Perhaps, the idea was to write ‘brushed aside’.
The judge even seemed confused while trying to get in the right pronoun, and referred to Maryam's father as 'his father'.
“Maryam Nawaz was instrumental in concealment of the properties of his father …” wrote the judge.
Maryam Nawaz was sentenced as well to seven years in the same anti-corruption case. She was also told to cough up two million pounds as penalty.
The judge wrote ‘guild’ when he wanted to say ‘guilt’.
At another place he wrote: “Prosecution have not bright evidence in respect of 9(a)(iv) NAO 1999. So the accused are acquitted under the section of law.”
Whether he wanted to say that there was no evidence at all to prove this charge or it was insufficient is left to readers’ imagination.
At another page he wrote, “[The] JIT found contradictions and anomalies those arte mentioned at pages 5 to 21.”
The judge also erred in using the right tense for the sentences. For example, this: “The trust deeds are filed to mislead the court and does not prepared on date noted in this deed.”
On Friday, it was expected that the verdict would be announced in the morning if the judge was going to dismiss the plea by the Sharifs to delay it for a week.
At 3pm, the judge himself explained to the lawyers and the reporters that the judgement was being given final touches and it would take some more time to finalise and print it. It was obvious that the judge and his staff were struggling to meet the timeframe they had set themselves.
“It is to certify that this judgment is comprising upon 174 pages. Each page has been signed by me after making necessary corrections therein wherever required,” read Judge Bashir’s note at the end of the judgment.
The judgment though tragic for the Sharif family and Pakistan politics ended but providing some unintended humour.
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