Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was arrested over non-compliance with the law as he defied the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) summons time and again.
Addressing a press conference at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, she said Abbasi was summoned by the NAB four times, but he did not turn up and also did not secure a pre-arrest bail. “All those powerful politicians who considered themselves above the law in the past will have to bow before the law now,” she said, adding that the accused should prove themselves innocent and seek justice from the courts, as the institutions were free in the country today.
Firdous said Abbasi had pledged to stand by Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif in the hour of need, but he looked dismayed and frustrated after his arrest. She said Abbasi and the PML-N leadership were only raising fingers at the government institutions and the government, especially Prime Minister Imran Khan.
She said the opposition’s criticism of the prime minister had proved that they nurtured ill-will and personal animosity against Imran Khan. She said Prime Minister Imran Khan had ensured supremacy of the law in the country. Nobody was above the law today and all citizens were being governed by the law of the land, she added.
Referring to the PML-N president’s press conference, she said Shehbaz Sharif had badly failed to defend allegations against him and he was bent upon making his son-in-law Ali Imran the “son of the nation”. She said that the PML-N leadership had run abroad while it had left the nation in the sea of foreign debts, adding that the government was determined to make them bring their overseas properties back to Pakistan.
Regarding victimisation of the opposition, the special assistant said that it was a mere blame-game and the government had made its own ministers answerable before the law. She said the sitting local government minister of the PTI was arrested by the NAB, who had been prosecuted and was facing cases. She said the Punjab forest minister was also arrested by the NAB. She said such cases were unprecedented in the political history of the country, as the sitting government ministers were sent behind the bars. To another query, Firdous said Prime Minister Imran Khan had ensured that all were equal before the law, adding that the corrupt would face accountability across the board.
