Did NAB have to arrest Maryam Nawaz Sharif sahiba in front of her father and uncle, Shehbaz Sharif asked parliament on Friday.
Could it not have waited a single day, he asked. Maryam, a vice-president of the PML-N, was arrested at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on Thursday when she went to meet her incarcerated father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
NAB said she didn’t cooperate in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case but during Friday’s National Assembly session, Shehbaz, who is both the head of the PML-N and leader of the opposition in the assembly, says she has appeared before it whenever summoned. She was summoned again on Thursday at 11am but asked NAB if it could postpone the hearing till 3pm because Thursday is the official visiting day at Kot Lakhpat and Maryam goes to visit her father every week without fail.
The bureau sent five cars to the jail and arrested Maryam there. “She said she would go at 3pm. Couldn’t they wait?” asked Shehbaz.
Related: Maryam Nawaz arrested outside Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail“Without fear, I say this…NAB and PTI are in a partnership and attempting to push the opposition to the wall. But they can try. We will push them to the wall,” vowed the PML-N chief. What did we do to warrant these arrests and treatment, he asked.
He listed the PML-N’s achievements in its last tenure, such as progress on CPEC. What did Shahid Khaqan Abbasi do, he demanded. He set up an LNG pipeline across Pakistan and didn’t let gas prices rise, said Shehbaz. Abbasi, a former petroleum minister and former prime minister was arrested last month in the LNG contract case.
“What did Nawaz Sharif do? He gave people laptops instead of Kalashnikovs and drugs,” said Shehbaz. He then pointed to the PTI-led KP government and said no one speaks about the Rs100 billion corruption in the Peshawar BRT. But it isn’t me saying this, he said, adding that he was quoting a report by the Asian Development Bank on the project. But no one is asking about this because of the partnership between NAB and the PTI, he said.
Shehbaz also accused the government of arresting Maryam and his nephew Yousaf Abbas Sharif in an attempt to divert attention from their failed Kashmir policy. The stock market has plunged to a level below 30,000 points, trade has stopped, roti prices have cross Rs15, the poor don’t have medicine and the doors of educational institutes have been closed, he claimed, once again accusing the government of trying to hide this from the people.
“If what is being done to the PPP and PML-N is justice, then why are the others, those drowning in corruption, the kings who are free to travel abroad and people salute them, why has no one asked them a single question?” he asked. Corruption charges are just levelled on the PPP and PML-N and everyone else is innocent, he said.
