ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secretary-information Marriyum Aurangzeb, Tuesday, blamed the government for running an “organised strategy” for “persecuting” party president Shehbaz Sharif through “fabricated” cases by abusing the legal process.
Speaking at a news conference, the PML-N spokesperson maintained that the PTI government has failed to produce any evidence against Shehbaz Sharif in cases filed in Pakistan and abroad.
She pointed out that a British newspaper that had published a defamatory story against Shehbaz Sharif on July 14, 2019 “based on the lies and fed to its journalist by Imran Khan and Shehzad Akbar.”
“Not only did the UK government rebut the false story on the same day by making an exception of opening their office on a Sunday, but the story was also sued for defamation by Shehbaz Sharif in the UK court,” she said.
From July 14, 2019 to December 21, 2021, she claimed that no evidence was submitted to the London court, while the newspaper “requested extension of time to gather evidences for the fifth time on December 9th 2021, because they could not do it because of the Christmas Holidays.”
“This is a ridiculous preposition because the newspaper had said that all evidences of the claims made in the story were already in possession,” she maintained. She said that earlier it was claimed that Pakistan is on the Red List; therefore, no evidence could be collected.
She stated that Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on October 5, 2018 in Ashiana case and attempts were made to arrest him at Ramzan Sugar Mill and Ganda Nala. “Shehbaz Sharif was in the custody of NAB. When the inquiry was going on, a case of assets beyond means was made but no arrest was made. At that time, why wasn’t the Ganda Naala, Ramadan sugar mills and assets beyond means case investigated? If these were such serious allegations, special fake news was planted against Shehbaz Sharif by calling foreign journalists, why these cases were not investigated at that time?” she asked.
“Imran Khan’s vengeful obsession with victimizing PML-N leaders especially Shehbaz Sharif was because of his insecurity that he could never ever come close to the competence and transparency of the PML-N president,” she claimed.
She said that the “NAB-Niazi nexus”has not been able to find anything, to prove their “false” accusation of corruption, kickbacks, and abuse of power against Shehbaz.
“The people of Pakistan have already shown what they want in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa local body elections. This decision is a message to Imran Khan that the people of Pakistan have rejected your allegations, and politics of containers fascism. Even today, every by-election goes in favour of Nawaz Sharif and against Imran, because Imran did nothing but levelled allegations for three years, tossed turbans, crushed people under inflation, unemployment and economic catastrophe,” she maintained.
She said that after the defeat in local government elections, the PTI would now again pressed for conducting the next election of the electronic voting machines (EVMs). “But PML-N will not allow it to happen. The people of Pakistan will no longer vote for Imran Khan. He cannot win any election now by stalling RTS and pressing the EVM button because the people of Pakistan had decided not to let that happen after sufferings to their incompetence,” she added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021