ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday lashed out against the ‘organised strategy to persecute’ Shehbaz Sharif through abuse of the legal system to keep him entangled in one false case after another by abusing the process of law.
At a press conference, Marriyum said the PTI regime had failed to produce a shred of evidence against Shehbaz Sharif in cases filed in Pakistan and abroad. She pointed out that the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, had published a defamatory story against Shehbaz Sharif on July 14, 2019 based on the lies fed to him 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, no evidence was submitted to the London court while the Daily Mail requested an extension of time to gather evidence a fifth time on December 9th 2021, because they couldn’t do it because of the Christmas Holidays. This she said was a ridiculous preposition because the newspaper had said that all evidence of the claims made in the story were already in possession. Earlier it was claimed that Pakistan is on the Red List, therefore no evidence could be collected but on 17th September 2021, Pakistan was removed from the Red List then why were the so-called proofs not made available? Why was the evidence not pursued for three long months from September of December 2021?
“Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on October 5, 2018 in the Ashiana case. Attempts were made to arrest him at Ramzan Sugar Mill and Ganda Nala. Shehbaz 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 Shahbaz Sharif by calling foreign journalists, why were these cases not investigated at that time?,” she asked.
Imran, his tout Shehzad Akbar and his minions failed to give any proof even to the Lahore High Court, the Islamabad High Court or the Supreme Court, nor to the UK’s National Crime Agency. Despite this, even today they brazenly and shamelessly repeat the same allegations against Shahbaz Sharif daily and hold press conferences. For the first time in the history of Pakistan, two agencies, NAB and FIA, are investigating the same allegations against Shehbaz. The way the legal process has been used illegally for three years, to silence Shehbaz’s criticism of the imposed PTI government by keeping him entangled in these cases”, she said.
She said that PM Imran Khan’s vengeful obsession with victimizing PMLN leaders especially Shehbaz Sharif was because of his insecurity that he could never ever come close to the competence and transparency of the PMLN President.
“Shehbaz was arrested and jailed twice over cases that could have been investigated together the Supreme Court maintained his bail in the first case in December 2019 bail maintained and the 4-member Lahore High Court Bench granted him bail in March 2021 after he was arrested the second time in September 2020,” she concluded.
The former information minister said the NAB-Niazi nexus could not find anything to prove their false accusation of corruption, kickbacks, and abuse of power.
