Nawaz confident of PML-N’s by-election win

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed complete confidence that his party will be able to overcome the political hurdles and win the upcoming by-elections.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo said this while chairing a party meeting on Saturday in the aftermath the arrest of his brother Shehbaz Sharif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Ashiana Housing Society scam.

During the meeting, Nawaz said that former Punjab chief minister had worked tirelessly for the people of the province during his tenure. Nawaz reassured the party leadership not to worry as their hands are clean of any corruption.

Media reports said that Shehbaz’s son and Punjab Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz, who also was present during the meeting, apprised the former premier on the legal aspects of the accountability case against his father.

Moreover, party leader Raja Zafarul Haq has written a letter to the chief election commissioner over party’s reservations of pre-poll rigging in the wake of by-elections, which are scheduled for October 14.

The letter details how Shehbaz’s arrest, allegedly an act of political victimisation, will effect the upcoming by-polls.

Earlier in the day, Shehbaz was sent on a 10-day physical remand after appearing before an accountability court in the Ashiana Housing scam case.

The anti-graft watchdog arrested the PML-N president on October 5 in the multi-billion rupee housing scam after he was called to appear for a routine hearing in the Punjab Saaf Paani case.

The accountability body had requested the court for a 14-day remand of the accused.