NAB should probe Shahbaz Sharif on camera: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Ag agencies

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that he does not understand why the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was in such much haste in investigating Shahbaz Sharif.

He said that NAB should inquire Shahbaz Sharif on camera. The former prime minister said, “It is so unfair that NAB can't wait, although Shahbaz Sharif has submitted all required documents before the court.”

The national accountability watchdog should now demand documents from Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shahzad Akbar, and NAB chairman, he said, condemning the discriminatory behaviour of authorities towards PML-N and its leaders. Last week, PML-N PresidentShahbaz Sharif skipped a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) hearing on Friday due to the coronavirus situation in the country.

According to PML-N’s spokesperson Attaullah Tarar, Shahbaz Sharif is a cancer survivor and his health does not permit him to appear before the corruption watchdog amid the current situation of coronavirus.

NAB had summoned the PML-N leader in a money laundering case and had asked him to submit bank details along with the loan taken from Barclays Bank between 2005 and 2007.

“A complete detail of your foreign assets along with the year of acquisition/disposal and source of personal/bank loans along with details of loan repayment and current outstanding loan should be provided,” reads the questionnaire sent to Shahbaz Sharif. PML-N leaders hit out at the incumbent government, accusing it of taking inadequate measures to stem the coronavirus that has claimed nearly 200 lives across the country.

While addressing a news conference flanked by PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb and Senator Musadik Malik, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi alleged that it is because of the incompetence of the present government that the people of Pakistan might have to suffer in the coming days. “Previously the government was not able to make a timely decision for imposing a lockdown in the country and now they are so quick to ease restrictions even though the number of coronavirus cases is swelling with each passing day”, criticised Abbasi.

Stressing upon the fact that these decisions should be brought under question during National Assembly sessions, the PML-N lawmaker rued that the authorities have failed to take effective measures in order to mitigate the adverse effects of coronavirus.

In response to Abbasi’s criticism of the government, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the premier is worried about the people’s suffering during the COVID-19 crisis, while the PML-N leadership is lamenting Sharif family’s problems.

Awan said that the people had “thrown out” political parties from the ruling office who could not run the country. “The opposition leader [Shahbaz Sharif] had come to stand with the people but now he is in isolation,” she said.

The PM’s aide said that Abbasi should tell his [party] leadership to “return what they took from the nation.”