–Hearing of Ramzan Sugar Mills, Ashiana cases adjourned till May 11
LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz on Monday slammed the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over induction of Azam Swati into Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet despite “being disqualified by the apex court”.
Speaking to the media outside the accountability court where he appeared in connection with the hearing of a NAB case, he termed the recent reshuffle in the federal cabinet “a drama”.
Despite being disqualified by the Supreme Court, Azam Swati was inducted into the cabinet, he added.
He questioned if this is a Naya Pakistan and added there are a circus and a drama going on in the federal capital.
The PML-N leader said it is time for the prime minister to fulfill the promises he had made to the people of the country.
He said the people have become sick of soaring inflation but the PTI was busy defending its government, predicting that a storm of inflation will hit the people hard in the days to come.
Hamza said the people running the government are incompetent and that the government lacked a road map to steer the country out of the present situation.
He lamented that prices of essential commodities and medicine had soared by 100 per cent since the PTI assumed power last year in August.
Meanwhile an accountability court in Lahore adjourned the hearing of the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing cases till May 11 due to the absence of the judge scheduled to conduct the hearing.
The court was due to hear the Ashiana Housing case against the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, and the Ramzan Sugar Mills case against his son, Hamza Shehbaz. The cases, however, could not be heard as the judge was on leave.
The accountability court had earlier accepted an application by Shehbaz seeking exemption from personal appearance for a day. The PML-N president had submitted the application through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz, who had asked the court to grant his client exemption from court proceedings until May 8 as he was abroad for medical treatment.
Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz appeared before the court on Monday; his security guards, however, were stopped from entering the court.
The father-son duo was indicted in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case earlier this month. The National Accountability Bureau in February had filed a reference against the two alleging that the former chief minister of Punjab misused his authority by using public funds for the construction of a bridge to facilitate the Ramzan mills, owned by his sons.
The PML-N president was earlier indicted in the Ashiana scheme case.
