Specific lobby targeted Nawaz

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said Mian Nawaz Sharif was being targeted by a specific lobby through smear campaigns with no real substance.

However, he added, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) stands with him (Nawaz) and only his policy would be followed for the upcoming election campaign. Addressing the media outside the Punjab Assembly, he said the PML-N would inflict such a resounding defeat on the ‘aliens’ under Nawaz Sharif leadership that they would never talk of elections again.

He said a planned persecution of Nawaz Sharif had been carried out and he was being targeted through smear campaigns against him. “Nawaz talked about non-state actors and a more stringent mechanism to eliminate them. And it was clear for everyone to understand, but then the ‘invisible forces’ and their dictated media launched a campaign to misconstrue his statement,” he added.

Rana talked about the National Accountability Bureau in detail and said the chairman appeared to have been attempting to rectify blunders and making amends; however, his team was the same that existed before him. The minister said that certain persons were given a clean chit in Sindh as NAB was lenient towardsthem, but it had been incredibly active in Punjab.

He criticised the double standards of accountability and said that if people like Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders Muzaffar Tappi, Pir Mazharul Haq and Faryal Talpur had been declared ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’, then who would be corrupt in the world.

Sanaullah said that it was very important to expose the culture of turncoats to the people. The turncoats were being recruited into Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), saying it was common knowledge what were the stimuli behind these additions and subtractions from the parties.

Monitoring desk adds: Rana Sanaullah said despite efforts being made to defame the PML-N supremo, the party continues to stand with Nawaz to defeat the 'aliens'.

“It is important to hold timely and transparent elections. The PML-N will emerge victorious by defeating the ‘aliens’,” he added. He said that turncoats had joined the PML-N in 2013 and the party was aware of two such individuals. "It is imperative that the nation is told about the factory producing turncoats," he added. The minister recalled that it was Nawaz Sharif who had made Pakistan a nuclear power.