Former accountability court judge Arshad Malik has passed away due to the novel coronavirus, BOL news reported on Friday.

Judge Malik, on December 4, 2018, had handed ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif seven years in jail in the Al Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference. He, however, had acquitted him in a second reference related to Flagship Investments.

Following the controversy, the Islamabad High Court had repatriated him to the LHC, his parent department, for disciplinary proceedings.

It may be recalled that Judge Arshad Malik, who had given a verdict against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on July 3, was sacked after the investigation into the video scandal against him was completed.

Arshad Malik was a judge in the accountability court of Islamabad. After the video scandal of Judge Arshad Malik came to light, Arshad Malik had confessed to meeting Nawaz Sharif and Hussain Nawaz. The matter also reached the Supreme Court and the then Chief Justice of Pakistan had said in an order on August 23, 2019, that regarding Nawaz Sharif’s sentence only the Islamabad High Court can decide.

Coronavirus in Pakistan 

Pakistan has recorded 55 more deaths due to the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 8260.

According to the Government’s COVID-19 portal, 3,262 new cases were reported in a single day. With the fresh inclusion of the cases, the national caseload now stands at 410,072. 3,354 patients have recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours and 2,395 patients are in critical condition. The total count of active cases is 51,507 and the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases reaches up to 7.3 percent.