Shahbaz’s arrest is contempt of parliament: Khursheed

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The PPP senior leader Khursheed Shah on Friday termed the arrest of Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif as the contempt of parliament.

However, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, when asked about the arrest, did not comment. “I wouldn’t want to comment without reading the case and want to leave it at that,” Bilawal told reporters during a news conference. Similarly, the leaders of religious parties also termed the NAB’s activism a bias against politicians which, they said, raised the question as to why other sections of the ruling elite, especially the civil and military bureaucracy, have always been clearly spared.

In his reaction, Khursheed said the government is taking such steps after the failure in implementing its 100-day programme. He said parliament must be taken into the confidence about political cases which should be examined by akind of arrest only shows political victimisation,” he said.

Similarly, the PPP said there was no justification for the arrest, Shahbaz summoned for another case but detained in a different one. “With the statement of Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, it seems that Shahbaz Sharif was arrested at the behest of the government,” said Sindh Minister Saeed Ghani at a press conference.

Ghani said the NAB should have to follow its laws, not the government policy. The way the arrest was made had only made NAB controversial, he said. The provincial minister said the PPP was facing the political victimisation since long and many party leaders were jailed and not given bails.

He said the NAB’s inefficiency was proved in the Nawaz Sharif’s case in which the accountability court gave the verdict that no corruption allegation was proved against him. Ghani said the PPP had proposed to the PML-N for an amendment in Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution besides changes in the NAB laws but the PML-N did not pay any attention and was facing the consequences.

He said the PPP always demanded the transparent accountability and wanted that the NAB should take action only on the basis of solid evidence but it was always used as a political tool of the government to twist the opposition’s arms for political benefit. “The FIA should be asked whose money was detected in the unclaimed bank account of an ice cream vendor,” he said.

In a reply to a question, he said the case may be framed against the prime minister in the NAB with regard to the auction of buffaloes and cars. Ghani said in the tenure of former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar, actions were taken against NGOs. “Those who wanted to work in Pakistan were asked to leave,” he said.

He said the transfers of bureaucrats were being made under the pressure of the ruling party’s legislators but no action was taken against them. Ghani said allegations were also levelled against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, adding that the NAB was used in 2002 to split the political parties after which new ones were formed.

He said the PTI had always claimed that police and bureaucracy should be independent but the incident of the DPO Pakpattan transfer had exposed the PTI government. Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said the NAB had so far arrested and tried only the politicians, while civil and military bureaucracy had always escaped its net.

He said the arrest further cemented the impression that the NAB was only going after the Sharif family. He expressed his displeasure by saying that Shahbaz was is the opposition leader being the head of the largest opposition party in Parliament, the Speaker of National Assembly should have been consulted and his permission sought before arresting Shahbaz.

JI chief Sirajul Haq said the NAB must adopt an impartial conduct in investigating and arresting those accused of corruption otherwise public’s confidence over its activities would be totally lost. He demanded that the NAB must arrest all those who had been accused of corruption, including those 436 big fish whose names appeared in the Panama Leaks.

Markazi Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith president Sajid Mir said the NAB and other state institutions were only going after the Sharif family, giving an impression that only the Sharif family was the object of accountability in the country at present. He expressed sorrow that the culture of political victimisation was established by a military dictator but unfortunately a so-called democratically-elected government was following his footsteps, earning a bad name for the democracy.

Tanzeem-e-Islami head Hafiz Akif Saeed said although the NAB laws allowed officials to arrest any accused at any stage of probe, the biggest question was that the investigations and arrests of NAB had never borne any results. He too lamented that the institutions like NAB had always been used to victimise opponents.

Meanwhile, PAT is the only party which expressed pleasure over the arrest of Shahbaz, as its secretary general Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said he should have been arrested much earlier and alleged that massive corruption of the Sharif brothers had been an open secret.