KARACHI Pakistan People's Party's information secretary Fauzia Wahab has said that a routine appointment of chairman of the National Accountability Bureau is being made controversial by those who fear across-the-board accountability and reopening of references and inquiries into corruption, tax evasion and default of about Rs1 billion pending against the Sharif brothers.

“We are not ashamed of the NRO from which over 8,000 people have benefited, but only three or four persons are being focused to belittle the government,” she said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

She announced a boycott of the Geo TV channel and Jang newspaper, accusing them of being partisan.

Ms Wahab said the Jang group was a defaulter of Rs8 billion and evader of taxes amounting to Rs1.68 billion.

She said as the PPP believed in reconciliation, there was no political prisoner nor was any case registered on political grounds.

She said it was for the first time that members of the government were seeking protective bails from courts, while members of the opposition enjoyed state facilities and democratic freedom.

She alleged that Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali was trying to make controversial a routine appointment of the NAB chairman because his party feared reopening of over 20 references and inquiries against the Sharif brothers. “These cases and inquires were halted when the Sharif brothers left for abroad,” but now the NAB chairman was bound to reopen the pending cases because they had returned to the country, she said.

She said critics feared that accountability across the board would lead to reopening of cases pertaining to Rs1 billion default of the National Bank against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Rs6 billion corruption, Raiwind, sugar mills, Hudaibia paper mills and tax evasion.

Fauzia Wahab alleged that when all leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-N were suffering in the Attock Fort after Oct 12, 1999, Chaudhry Nisar, who was presenting himself as 'Mr Clean', was 'detained' in his house with freedom to move anywhere and receive anyone after sunset because he had a “secret understanding with Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf”.

A leader who had suffered solitary confinement for four years was lying in hospital, while those who passed the period in comfort were still having a good time, the PPP leader said.

“Chaudhry Nisar recently said that they had resisted pressure from undemocratic forces, but now they are playing into the hands of those forces.”

The PPP leader alleged that the leader of opposition in the National Assembly used to meet generals in the darkness of the night, while “our leadership meets them in the light of the day”.

Fauzia Wahab, in a swipe at Geo and Jang, said their campaign against the People's Party showed the group was not impartial.

She said PPP legislators and leaders would not participate in any programme of the channel and the party would not send any statement or give an interview to the newspaper.