Leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly, Hamza Shehbaz, on Tuesday asked several questions from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at its doorstep. He had just stepped out of the building after appearing before the anti-graft body in Lahore.
“I have answered in front of the people and presented all the facts here,” he remarked.
Hamza wondered why the NAB was ignoring the case of a person who had used the government helicopter for his personal visits.
“Under which capacity, the same person is holding meetings with the Chairman NAB?”
He inquired while referring to a pending NAB case against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The opposition leader further added that his mother and sisters had received notices from the bureau but why had it not asked Aleema Khan regarding accumulated properties worth billions.
Criticising the corruption watchdog, the scion of Sharif family said the NAB summoned Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafique and Bilawal Bhutto but chose to ignore the multi-billion corruption in the Peshawar Metro Bus Project.
“I am not scared of the summons of NAB, but I am worried over the economic murder of my people as the Niazi Government has borrowed 3300 billion in just 8 months and the whole burden would be faced by the common people,” regretted Hamza.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader further asked how were cabinet members, including Fawwad Chaudhry and Shehzad Akbar, getting information regarding our money laundering?
“It seems that either the FBR or the NAB are passing such information to both of them,” he added. According to Hamza, federal ministers were levelling allegations of laundering 85 billion while the interior ministry had accused us of transferring 33 billion.
“Today, the NAB told me that the issue was of just 18 crore rupees and that too between 2005-8 and I wasn’t a public office holder at that time,” he maintained.
Claiming he was the only family member living in Pakistan at that time, the PML-N leader said that he was not allowed to go abroad by the military dictator, Pervaiz Musharaf.
He added that NAB officials used to routinely interrogate me for six long hours.
Criticising the performance of the government, Hamza said that whenever the opposition asked questions regarding the performance of the last eight months, it receives NAB notices and bears baseless allegations of corruption from ministers.
“The incompetent government of PTI has changed fourth IG in a row in just last eight months,” he lambasted.
Hamza further added that no one changed peon or servant in such a short span of time but the chief of a police force was changed so frequently in Punjab.
He further made note of the unfoldingly increasing inflation and asserted the prices of medicines had been increased by 400 per cent.
The poor man is suffering resultantly, the leader wailed.
“The government has appointed the same team of bureaucracy after just eight months that was a part of the core team of Shehbaz Sharif and it shows that Sharif was never involved in the corruption,” he noted. Hamza claimed that Shehbaz had always initiated projects of public service.
