Shahbaz Sharif remains accused, bail not proof of innocence: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has advised Opposition Leader Mian Shahbaz Sharif to return and face court cases instead of flashing victory signs in news conferences in London.

Reacting to Shahbaz’s news conference, she maintained that the PML-N leader was trying to mislead the nation on the basis of a concocted narrative. “The court has not given him clearance certificate in the Ashiana housing scheme case, he has beengranted bail,” she noted. She asserted that the case was pending before the court and was yet to be decided and as long as it was pending, Shahbaz would remain an accused.

Shahbaz, she said, must present evidence before the courts and added had the NAB conducting accountability on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, then the opposition would not have been ‘moving so freely’. She billed his ‘one-hour-long’ news conference as an amalgamation of lies told to the nation while the country was in search of the leader of opposition.

Referring to taunts by Shahbaz, calling Prime Minister Imran Khan as Niazi, she said that the prime minister was proud of the fact that he was a Niazi and challenged the opposition leader to share his background first with the nation. She quipped, “Is Mian your title, caste or have you kept the name just because you like it. Shahbaz should tell the nation himself or I will have to.”

Dr Awan emphasised that the Sharif brothers should present their real faces before the nation or she would have to take this responsibility to expose them. Shahbaz Sharif, she alleged, tried to make the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) a controversial body, whereas Prime Minister Imran Khan believed in the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law and his long-cherished dream was being realised now.

She pointed out that from a Pakistani family, over Rs38 billion had been repatriated while the nation would continue to hear such good news in future as well. She regretted that in the past, no ruler dared to push for recovery of the looted wealth stashed abroad but Prime Minister Imran Khan made it possible. The Pakistani law, she contended, would continue to chase the looters of the nation’s wealth. She also called for keeping the state and politics separate.

About the opposition’s decision to take the issue of appointment of members of the Election Commission to the Supreme Court, she claimed that there had been agreement on the name of Naveed Jan Baloch as ECP member but the opposition sought one-week time and also sought time with regard to the name of chief election commissioner. “Those who have been repeatedly talking about the supremacy of the Parliament, have now gone to courts,” she regretted.