LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday lashed out at the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for getting a resolution adopted against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday.

NAB has drawn the ire of the PML-N’s government in Punjab after the anti-graft watchdog brought in former Lahore Development Authority director Ahad Khan Cheema for questioning in connection with investigations into a Rs14 billion Ashiyana Iqbal Housing Scheme scam. Mr Khan had earlier claimed that Mr Cheema had been acting as a “front man” of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The PTI chief was speaking to journalists after a parliamentary party meeting, where he discussed their prospects in the Senate elections scheduled for March 3.

Lauding the party’s work in this regard, Mr Khan expressed the hope that Chaudhry Sarwar, the PTI’s candidate, would win a Senate seat.

He alleged that the Punjab CM and his elder brother Nawaz Sharif had been behaving like a mafia, as they had attacked state institutions that had initiated action against. Whether it is the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Army or NAB, the Sharifs want to damage and control state institutions to further their vested interests, he said.

PTI chief condemns Punjab Assembly’s resolution against NAB

“The whole of Pakistan condemns the anti-NAB resolution adopted by the Punjab Assembly,” he said, while adding a taunt that the lawmakers should have passed a law to give the Sharifs a free hand to loot the country. Last year, the former prime minister was threatening the NAB, he said, and now the younger Sharif has started attacking the anti-graft body.

He added that NAB should know that whole of Pakistan stood by it, and that they would ensure that the corrupt would be held responsible for their actions and the looted money would be recovered.

“The country cannot progress until and unless its institutions will be strengthened,” he said, adding in the same breath that this is why he had called for early elections, so that the Sharifs could be ousted with the power of vote and institutions could be strengthened to take the country to new heights”.

The PTI chief alleged that CM Sharif had spent Rs9 trillion in the nine years he had been in power, and was therefore bound to explain where the money had been spent to provide health and education, as well as other amenities including safe drinking water. He said the younger Sharif would also be held accountable for strengthening the police force and controlling law and order in the province. He said the chief minister would soon be held accountable for lavishly spending public money on mega projects and getting his kick-backs.

Mr Khan said that Capital Engineering CEO Faisal Subhan had revealed to the Chinese SECP that CM Sharif had received kickbacks from the Multan Metro project. Soon afterwards, Mr Subhan went missing, he claimed. “Politicians do not make witnesses go `missing’... but mafias do,” he said.

“More witnesses against the Sharif brothers will come up once they are out of the corridors of power. At present, people are afraid that they may go ‘missing’ too,” he said.

Mr Khan said the Sharif brothers had instructed and facilitated Nadeem Zia, one of the contractors in connection with the Ashiyana Housing Scheme, to flee abroad.

CM Sharif had spent some Rs40bn to make him look good in the media, and even publicised those projects that had failed, such as the Nandipur Power Project. “After coming into power, the PTI will hold Shahbaz Sharif accountable for that Rs40bn,” he asserted.

Answering a question about Nawaz Sharif’s election as party Quaid for life, the PTI chief said it was pathetic of the PML-N to honour a person, who had looted Rs300bn from the nation and stashed his assets abroad.

Responding to another question, he said, PML-N’s senior leader Chaudhry Nisar had proved his mettle and dignity by refusing to serve the party under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz, who had no personal qualifications.

To another question, Mr Khan said women must participate in political activities but the respective parties must protect them from any untoward incidents.

Later, he held a meeting with Lahore Press Club’s newly elected body, Lahore High Court Bar members as well as party workers at various venues in the city. Earlier, the PTI chairman had directed party leader Usman Dar from Sialkot to submit money laundering evidence against foreign minister Khawaja Asif and his wife to the NAB chairman.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018