–NA Opp leader tells NA session govt ordered Maryam Nawaz’s arrest to distract people from flawed Kashmir policy
–PTI lawmaker says Opp has to answer for wealth it amassed over the years
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif on Friday accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government of “pushing the opposition against the wall” in a strongly worded speech on the assembly floor, as he condemned the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her cousin Yousuf Abbas by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Terming the anti-graft body’s move as ‘ruthless’, the PML-N president questioned why NAB could not have arrested Maryam from her residence.
“Could the NAB team not have arrested Maryam from Raiwind or intercepted her car?” Shehbaz asked while delivering a fiery speech on the floor of the Lower House.
“My niece Maryam was once again arrested in front of her father,” said the former Punjab chief minister, adding that the incident from July 13, 2018, when the father-daughter duo had been arrested in front of the other been recreated on Thursday.
He further stated that he had been kept from seeing the deposed premier in prison after being asked to wait outside while a team of the accountability watchdog arrested his niece Maryam and nephew Yousuf Abbas Sharif.
A day earlier, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said that: “The cruel tyrant Ziaul Haq was the only dictator who filed cases against the women of his political opponents’ families.”
“We are seeing this trend once again in this Naya Pakistan; you [Prime Minister Imran] are so shameless […] History will remember that Imran Khan, who talked about justice […] (sanctioned) the arrest of Maryam Nawaz without a conviction,” Bilawal said before walking out of the National Assembly session.
As the session continued on Friday, Shehbaz said: “This is not the first time we have suffered this injustice. My hair has turned white, we have seen all of this before.”
“[Prime Minister] Imran Khan Niazi is deluded if he thinks he can scare us with injustice and cruelty, that he can force Nawaz Sharif and his family to give in,” the PML-N president added.
He said the government and opposition had reached a “united stance” after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to strip Kashmir of its autonomy but the government, with the arrest of Maryam, had shredded that unity.
Shehbaz further claimed that “Maryam’s arrest is an attempt to distract [people] from the ‘government’s failed policy’ on [Indian occupied] Kashmir,” adding: “It’s a tactic to distract [us] from the sinking economy and the crashing stock market.”
The NA opposition leader also slammed the accountability watchdog and questioned its “lack of action” on the delayed Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project.
“Rs70 billion were wasted on Peshawar BRT, but maybe there is a nexus between PTI government and NAB that it hasn’t taken any notice of this corruption,” he alleged.
‘ONE-SIDED ACCOUNTABILITY’:
Taking the floor of the Lower House after Shehbaz, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif also called out the government over its ‘one-sided antics’ of accountability.
“If you want to talk about accountability, the government should first take a look at the 18 accounts the PTI is operating in the State Bank,” he said.
As pandemonium broke out in the NA, the PML-N leader flagged as to why the opposition alone is held accountable. “Why is PTI not accountable for anything?” he asked.
“Nawaz Sharif fulfilled all the promises he made,” Asif recounted, stating that his daughter Maryam had been suffering for raising a voice for the oppressed.
‘NAB IS INDEPENDENT’:
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, while responding to Shehbaz, said there was no nexus between NAB and PTI and that the opposition leaders have to answer for the assets they have acquired.
“You should explain in the court why you received billions of dollars from abroad,” he said, adding the government cannot answer on their behalf.
He said the government was not trying to divert the nation’s attention from Kashmir, recalling Modi’s visit to Pakistan.
“Today they are chanting slogans but just a few years ago […] was it Imran Khan who invited Narendra Modi, who murdered Muslims in India, to a wedding?”
Former PM Raja Pervez Ashraf sought unity in the ranks and said that the government should put aside its differences with the opposition and adopt a united stance.
The session was prorogued before Friday prayers.
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