Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif Thursday said the incumbent government’s failure and incompetence is being associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a private TV channel reported.
Addressing a press conference flanked by party leaders Ayaz Sadiq, Ahsan Iqbal and Marriyum Aurangzeb following the arrest of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said an attack was launched at his party through collusion with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi arrested from Thokar Niaz Baig in a graceless manner. “If there is accountability, where is it? This is the worst revenge against the PML-N in the garb of accountability,” he said.
“Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was arrested in a crude manner; when he asked for [arrest] warrants, the NAB officials just stared at each others’ faces,” Shehbaz claimed. “NAB DG came himself and showed a WhatsApp message. When Khaqan asked for a warrant signed by the NAB chairman, then they got a photocopy,” he revealed. “With measures such as these, Prime Minister Imran Niazi is aiming to divert the public’s attention away from the real issues,” he said, and added that he has killed the country’s economy in the past 11 months. “Imran is trying to hide the destroyed economy with these arrests,” the former chief minister said.
Shehbaz Sharif narrated as to how Abbasi had a pivotal role in ending the gas load shedding and how the consequent resumption of gas and power led to improvements in businesses and employment. “Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his team, too, were under pressure … but they never hiked up the prices because he knew and sympathised with the country’s poor,” he said. “The International Monetary Fund’s dictation was not accepted during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure,” he said, adding, “What is Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s crime? He’s a loyal ally of Nawaz Sharif.
Maryam laments that another prime minister who was elected by the people’s votes has been arrested
The opposition leader lamented rupee devaluation that led to an increase in prices of commodities, and accused the prime minister of ‘defaming the country all over the world’. “I want to tell the NAB chairman that this is not the first time PML-N is going through this. Everyone knows what happened to us during the Musharraf era,” he said. “We were forced into exile, Musharraf turned our house into an old people’s house. But we are still alive, we will remain here and continue to serve the people,” he added.
With regard to the countrywide shutter-down strike by Pakistan’s business fraternity, the PML-N president said his party did not join it as they wanted to show the government that there was nothing political about it. “We also did not participate [in the protests] because we wished for the government to know that it was the traders, businesspersons, and industrialists who are being forced to protest,” he noted.
Shehbaz once again rejected claims made in a news report published in The Mail, that accused him of embezzling money from funds provided by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) for 2005 earthquake victims. “In 2005, when the earthquake hit Pakistan’s northern areas, I was in exile in the UK,” he said. “This is such a disgusting allegation that I stole money from a fund for earthquake victims and gave it to my children,” he said. “If I was guilty of this charge, why did you have to arrest me in Ashiana or Ramzan Sugar Mills case? You could have arrested me in this one,” he asked.
Referring to accusations that money was laundered for his family by then chairman of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) Ikram Naveed, Shehbaz said, “ERRA is a federal institution, not provincial.” He further said that he had removed Naveed for corruption in 2011. “DFID gave 500 million pounds over the 10 years when I was Punjab’s chief minister. Ask me anything you want to ask about that money, but they have not talked about that,” he said. “You (Prime Minister Imran) have defamed me, why did you have to defame the country?” he asked.
Meanwhile, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said that another prime minister who was elected by the people’s votes has been arrested.
Maryam took to Twitter after NAB detained Abbasi, and questioned that will lawlessness, humiliation and injustice be the fate of all those who are elected by vote. “An elected representative is just a victim of a photocopied page of a notorious institution,” she said.
