–Party meeting chaired by Nawaz Sharif calls for protest outside national, Punjab assemblies if govt fails to summon sessions on Tuesday
LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided to launch a countrywide protest against the arrest of party president and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Shehbaz was arrested last week by the anti-corruption watchdog for influencing a transfer of contracts in the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam. A day after, NAB obtained a 10-day physical remand of the PML-N president from an accountability court.
Speaking after a Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting of the PML-N, chaired by its supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday, MNA Rana Sanaullah gave a deadline to the government to call sessions of the national and Punjab assemblies on Tuesday to discuss Shehbaz’s arrest, failing which protest demonstrations will be staged outside the two assemblies on Wednesday.
He added that if the party’s demands were not met then the protest would spread out on roads across the country.
“The truth is that the said contract was cancelled on the recommendation of the then provincial finance secretary,” Sanaullah claimed. “The actual reason behind Shehbaz’s arrest was to carry out political victimisation to influence the outcome of the October 14 by-polls,” he further claimed.
Sanaullah said that the government’s policies against the country’s longstanding friendship with China and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would not be tolerated.
The PML-N leader further said that the CEC had also decided to take other opposition parties on board on the issue.
Sanaullah accused the PTI government of implementing “anti-people policies” since coming into power and warned the incumbent government that if it doesn’t take their protest seriously, the PML-N will extend its agitation.
The CEC meeting, held in Model Town, Lahore, and attended by the party’s CEC members, had earlier decided to protest against the PML-N leader’s arrest and Sunday’s press conference by Prime Minister Imran Khan inside the parliament. Some participants also suggested taking to the streets in protest, while others proposed to refrain from protesting in the streets in the country’s interests.
This was the first formal party meeting that Nawaz chaired after his release from Adiala jail last month.
The former premier, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (r) Mohammad Safdar were released from Adiala jail on September 19 after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended their sentences in the Avenfield corruption reference.
According to PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, the meeting was convened to discuss the situation after the arrest of Shehbaz Sharif by NAB and devise the party’s future strategy.
She said that the party believed that the PML-N president had been arrested as part of the ongoing policy of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to victimise its political opponents. Decrying the arrest before by-polls, the spokesperson said that it will not be tolerated.