Shahbaz asks NAB chief to produce evidence to back up his claims

LONDON: The President of Pakistan Muslim League (N) Shahbaz Sharif has challenged the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Justice  (R) Javed Iqbal to produce evidence that he or any member of the Sharif family contacted him directly or indirectly to offer plea bargains or any kind of deal or else he should issue clarification and rebut the reports ascribed to him.

Addressing a press conference here accompanied by Ishaq Dar, the former Finance Minister, the former Punjab Chief Minister said that several days have passed since the NAB Chairman made allegations against him, his brother Nawaz Sharif and son Hamza Sharid in an interview with a local paper. In the interview the NAB Chairman alleged that Shabaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz offered to pay him money for leniency in his case and that Nawaz Sharif had made a similar offer.

Shahbaz Sharif said that he had not spoken to the NAB chairman, never met him and never contacted him. “There has been no direct or indirect contact. The claims on behalf of the NAB chairman have been made in a published interview. The NAB chairman must issue a clarification on the lies published in the article. I call on the NAB Chairman to provide evidence in support of his allegations. I will quit politics forever if he provides any proof to back up his allegations. We reserve all our legal and constitutional rights.”

Shahbaz Sharif said that he and Ishaq Dar had met party colleagues in London and updated them about the party’s strategy in Pakistan. He said credit for ending load-shedding goes to Nawaz Sharif’s government. He said that the PMLN government brought energy projects to Pakistan and dedicated four years to end load shedding. He said it was laughable that Imran Khan took credit for ending load shedding in Pakistan.

He said that he had “never met or seen a bigger liar than Imran Khan all my life”. He said that the PTI government was responsible for creating fake crisis in 2014 onwards and stopped the Chinese President from coming to Pakistan. He said the PTI government has no economic plan for the future of Pakistan.

Shehbaz Sharif said that his party would remain neutral on the recent scandal relating to Justice (r) Javed Iqbal but demanded the constitution of a parliamentary committee for probing the allegations.

He said a parliamentary body should be formed to probe the issue as it was of national importance.