‘Niazi’ behind NAB action against Shahbaz: Hamza

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) central leader and Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz has said that (Prime Minister) Imran Khan Niazi was behind the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) action against opposition leader in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif.

Talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly, he said keeping Shahbaz Sharif in detention without any NAB reference and extension in his physical remand was a mockery of justice. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan should start accountability process from Banigala, the known land mafia Abdul Aleem Khan, Usman Buzdar and his sister Aleema Khan. He said if Maryam Nawaz Sharif could be sent to jail for no crime of her own, why PM’s sister Aleema Khan could not be investigated.

He said the court of people of Pakistan had given its verdict in favour of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in the by-polls by voting overwhelmingly for the PMLN. The PM’s drive is not against corruption, it is political victimisation, he said and added that if it were really about accountability, Imran’s sister Aleema Khan’s assets, Aleem Khan’s grabbed land, countless money launderers in the PTI should also have been arrested and put under inquiry.

The people of Pakistan have figured out that Niazi is behind NAB, which is why they expressed their dissent at the ballot. Never in the history of the country, a political party lost at such massive level in the by-polls in less than 100 days after the general elections,” added Hamza.

He said that this is the reality of illegitimate mandate that it could not sustain itself. The Punjab Assembly is under the control of an inept, incompetent and corrupt people, but soon Shahbaz Sharif would return to get the province back due to his development works, he added.

Hamza said he was not against the so-called ‘New Pakistan’, the PMLN would let the government work and make sure that the people of Pakistan get to know the blunders the government was making every single day. The PMLN, he said, would play its role as a strong opposition and expose these fake winners.

Later, the Punjab Assembly opposition leader chaired the meeting PML-N parliamentary committee before the budget session. It was decided in the meeting that the PML-N would not take part in the meeting of the Assembly Business Advisory Committee. The decision was taken in protest against the speaker for not summoning the session of Punjab Assembly on the request of the opposition alliance and locking down of the Assembly building by the speaker.

The parliamentary committee meeting strongly condemned the extension of physical remand of Shahbaz Sharif and termed it illegal and a gross display of political influence and political victimisation. PML-N MPA Azma Bukhari also submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly, demanding immediate removal of DG NAB Saleem Shahzad from his office.

The resolution maintained that the DG NAB was under an inquiry over verification of his educational degrees, as those were suspected as fake. A total of only 20 officials were brought under this inquiry and the DG NAB was one of them. The resolution stated that the DG was using his position to avoid and influence this inquiry and had not appeared before the inquiring authority using his power.