PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif addresses media in Lahore PHOTO: APP
The opposition leaders said that they were being targeted for serving the masses and accused the ruling Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of attempting to silence the opponents by implicating in false cases.
PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif condemned Abbasi’s arrest. “We strongly protest Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s arrest.
The institution of NAB has become Imran Khan’s puppet. Our spirits cannot be wavered by such cheap tactics,” he added.
Shehbaz has also summoned a emergency session of the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Saturday in Lahore to discuss the arrest of party leaders. The senior party leaders also also discuss a future strategy, it is learnt.
Other issues, such as price hike, increase in poverty, economic situation, removal of accountability judge Arshad Malik, no-confidence motion against Senate Chairman Sadqi Sanjrani will also be discussed, according to party sources.
Maryam Nawaz, the Senior Vice President of PML-N, also took to the microblogging website to slam the arrest of Abbasi. "Another prime minister who was elected with your votes, arrested. Would that lawlessness, insult and injutice be the fate of anyone who comes through your votes," she wrote.
Senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said that the opposition leaders were being targeted in the name of accountability as NAB had failed to work independently. “The senior party leaders are being victimised for serving people,” Iqbal told reporters.
Iqbal said that the PML-N government brought huge foreign investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), overcame terrorism and energy crisis. Party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that Abbasi was arrested by NAB without showing him the proper arrest warrants.
Other opposition leaders said that the PTI was trying to silence its opponents through false cases. “Abbasi’s arrest a part of the government’s ‘witch hunt’ campaign against elected representatives of opposition parties,” said, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Speaking at a press conference in Multan, Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman condemned the arrest of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. He also supported traders call for strike against the government on July 25.
On the other hand, Punjab Information Minister Syed Sumsam Ali Bukhari said that those who indulged in corruption were not being arrested because of votes but because of their loot and plunder. “PML-N cannot escape accountability by raising hue and cry,” the minister said, commenting on Abbasi’s arrest.
“Rest assured, the accountability process will continue until the last corrupt person is held accountable. Pakistan and corruption cannot move side by side,” Bukhari added. “Opposition should return plundered national money instead of holding press conferences.”
He warned that every government department would have to bring improvements. “Prime Minister Imran Khan has deep insight on all affairs of the province. The Punjab province will attain distinctions under the able leadership and guidance of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar,” he said.
The minister said that bringing reforms in every department was the basic agenda of the PTI government and desired work in this regard was under way. “The PTI government is confronting all the problems and challenges,” he said. “The government will emerge victorious on the issue of the Senate chairman.
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