‘NAB should be renamed ‘N’ accountability bureau’

Marriyum claims bureau-Niazi unholy alliance cannot find even a dime of corruption against Shehbaz


Our Correspondent January 07, 2019
Marriyum claims bureau-Niazi unholy alliance cannot find even a dime of corruption against Shehbaz. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has slammed a probable NAB interrogation of party President Shehbaz Sharif in jail, saying it is a witch-hunt against the PML-N and the bureau should be renamed ‘N’ accountability bureau.

“The oldest trick in the book for political victimisation is known as ‘assets beyond means’, which has again been used because the NAB-Niazi unholy alliance cannot find even a dime of corruption or misappropriation against Shehbaz,” said Marriyum in a video message released from Islamabad on Sunday.

To the news regarding a fresh interrogation of Shehbaz in jail, she said that this was just another one of the “accusatory circus” being run by the “incompetent Khan government”.

“Due to one massive failure and one disastrous blunder every day, the administration constantly needs distractions for which they abuse power to victimise the opposition,” she added. “The people of Pakistan have understood that when asked about the failures of the government vis-à-vis inflation, burden of increasing tax, unemployment and power shortage, such false propaganda and political victimisation is used to suppress the voice.”

She said that the chain of desperate attempts to frame Shehbaz had been ridiculously bizarre, adding that he was framed in the ‘Saaf Pani’ case, but when NAB-Niazi could not find anything wrong, they abducted him in Ashiana case and now that they had been unsuccessful in proving even a single charge, they had resorted to the last and favourite tool of vengeful autocracies – the ‘assets beyond means’ blame.

Marriyam said, “I need to tell the nation that contrary to what is being propagated, NAB has already run detailed sessions with Shehbaz over ‘assets beyond means’ in NAB custody. The question is, why does the ‘N’ accountability bureau want access to Shehbaz again? What remains to be asked that could not be probed during 64 days of constant inquiry and investigation?”

The former information minister said that despite the baseless, partisan and vengeful nature of these false accusations, Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz had braved every single step of the accountability process without flinching.

Marriyum questioned as to why was the hyper-active NAB mum over the Malam Jaba case against the K-P chief minister? Why hadn’t the chief minister been arrested while Shehbaz had been held against legal procedure? Why was the bureau silent over proven charges of power abuse by Imran Khan in the helicopter case?

She said that Aleema Khanum was the anonymous and silent beneficiary of Imran Khan’s ill-gotten money. “Illegal assets and mass money laundering had been proven against Aleema yet NAB is completely blind and deaf over it all as if it didn’t even happen,” she pointed out.

She claimed that the loot and scoot attempt at national mineral reserves in Chiniot too went completely unnoticed.

She questioned, “Why and how did the inquiries disappear on the ‘biggest dacoits of Punjab’ — Aleem Khan, the undisputed kind of land grabbers, Jahangir Tareen, the known money launderer, and everyone associated with the PTI?”

The people of Pakistan were very intelligent and could tell that the NAB-Niazi unholy matrimony was on a political victimisation spree, she concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2019.

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