Imran claims Bajwa 'rescued' Shehbaz in NAB cases
Former prime minister Imran Khan addressing his supporters on March 4, 2023. SCREENGRAB
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former premier Imran Khan on Sunday said that the country has become "a banana republic” as the Islamabad Police arrived at his Zaman Park residence to arrest him.
In a series of tweets, the ousted prime minister questioned what kind of future Pakistan will have given that "crooks are thrust as rulers" of the country.
He tweeted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was "about to be convicted by NAB [National Accountability Bureau]" for money laundering of Rs8 billion and also by the FIA [Federal Investigation Agency] for another Rs16 billion of corruption.
Read Imran: Bail in three cases, warrant in fourth
Imran claimed that PM Shehbaz was rescued by former chief of army staff General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa who "kept getting [the] NAB cases trial postponed".
The PTI chief furthered that Shehbaz had been made prime minister while he was under trial.
"He has since proceeded to select heads of those institutions investigating his cases - first FIA and now NAB - simply to get his name permanently cleared in [the] Rs16 billion corruption and Rs8 billion money laundering cases against him," Imran tweeted.
"This is how a country becomes "a banana republic"," he added.
Imran's tweets came while the Islamabad police prepared to arrest him from his Lahore residence in relation to warrants issued in the Toshakhana (gift repository) case against him.
Last week, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the ousted prime minister over his continuous absence before the judge in the Toshakhana case.
According to police sources, the former premier is avoiding arrest. SP City Rana Hussain Tahir went to the room in Imran's Zaman Park's residence where the PTI chairman was expected to be but he was not there when the police arrived.
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Meanwhile, PTI senior leader Fawad Chaudhry has urged all PTI supporters to converge outside Imran's Lahore residence and he told media outside Zaman Park that the purpose of calling Imran to these courts was to "attempt yet another attack on him".
PTI to challenge NAB chief appointment
It is pertinent to note that PTI leader and former Punjab governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema on Saturday announced the party’s plan to challenge the appointment of the new NAB chairman before the court.
The federal government appointed Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmad Butt as the new NAB chairman for a period of three years after PM Shehbaz and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz reached a consensus on the name of the retired general.
The government chose the new accountability czar on the heels of the prime minister’s meetings with Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, among others.