Nawaz victim of his children’s greed, says PTI spokesperson

• Fawad says deposed PM is in court because of the Rs 300 billion hoarded by his children in foreign bank accounts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is facing graft cases because of the ‘greed’ of his children.

The PTI leader was responding to a presser by Maryam Nawaz— Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and daughter of Nawaz— wherein she lamented that she was ‘dragged’ into the Avenfield reference to coerce her father into giving in.

Rebutting his claims of ‘innocence’ while talking to a local news channel, Fawad said, “Maryam is being made to appear before the court because she and her father embezzled money from the national exchequer.”

“His [Nawaz] children kept Rs300 billion in foreign accounts and it is their greed that has brought him to court. They crossed all limits of hoarding money which is why the entire family is facing trials today,” he alleged.

“Maryam is not in the docks because of Nawaz but her father is there because of her,” he said, adding Maryam submitted 22 “fake property deeds” in the court.

“Maryam is a ‘habitual liar’ and has no difficulty in lying,” the PTI leader said and added, “First, she claimed that she has no properties in London or Pakistan and then she later admitted to being the owner of property worth over Rs1.25 billion.”

“If the Supreme Court (SC) had applied the same laws that are applied to a common man then she would have been facing a seven-year jail term for submitting fake deeds,” Fawad claimed.

Earlier, Maryam Nawaz said that although her name was not mentioned in the verdict presented on April 2016, she was later incriminated by a joint investigation team (JIT) that had been formed “through WhatsApp calls”.

“Despite not figuring anywhere in the SC judgment dated April 20, 2017, the reason I was dragged into the case has  its origin in ‘will teach a lesson’ mindset that has threatened, harassed and victimised those who refuse to accept the excesses, those who had the courage to stand up to injustice and those who have dared to question the rotten, entrenched practice of bringing elected prime ministers to their knees, on one pretext or the other, be it religion, corruption or even ‘ghaddari’,” Maryam told the media.

Further lamenting on the number of times she has had to appear in court, she said, “I know why I am being kept away from my mother who is suffering from cancer and I also know that in Pakistan’s 70-year history no woman has ever appeared before the court these many times. My only fault is that I am Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. My only fault is that I, like other brave women of this country, stand firmly with my father. My only fault is that I think my father is right.”

“I have appeared before the court more than 70 times and the case is still going on,” she observed.