Shahbaz terms Abbasi?s arrest ?worst political vendetta?

[ahlam1399]

Ag AgenciesLAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) arrest of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the “worst vendetta against the PML-N in the garb of accountability”.“The NAB has become [Prime Minister] Imran Khan’s tool that is being used for political victimisation,” Shahbaz said at a fiery press conference following Abbasi’s arrest, adding such tactics would not discourage his party.He was flanked by party leaders Ayaz Sadiq, Ahsan Iqbal and Marriyum Aurangzeb. “Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s only crime is that he is a brave man and speaks the truth. He is loyal to Nawaz Sharif and that is why he is facing these tribulations,” he added.He claimed Abbasi was arrested on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly said the NAB officials showed Shahid Khaqan Abbasi a WhatsApp message before arresting him when he asked for arrest warrants.“Over the past 11 months, Imran Khan has left the economy akin to a corpse and now he is trying to hide this destroyed economy’s corpse behind these arrests,” claimed Shahbaz. He also credited Abbasi for ending the load-shedding of gas in the country.Media reports quoted Shahbaz as saying the country experienced a “flight of capital for the first time since 1972”, and blamed the Prime Minister and the anti-graft body for “inflicting fear” into Pakistani traders.The former Punjab chief minister asked why anyone would want to invest in Pakistan “when the Prime Minister himself claims the country is full of thieves”.Other party leaders also strongly criticised party senior vice president Abbasi’s arrest. “Another elected prime minister has been arrested. Will anyone else coming to power by vote also face the same lawlessness, humiliation, and injustice,” wrote Maryam Nawaz Sharif on her Twitter account.Speaking to reporters before Shahbaz’s press conference, Ahsan Iqbal said PML-N leaders were being “targeted in the guise of accountability” and the NAB “has failed to work independently”.He said senior PML-N leaders were being “victimised for serving the people and resolving the country’s major issues. The PML-N leadership, during its tenure, brought a large amount of foreign investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), overcame terrorism and the energy crisis, he added.Party spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb also spoke to reporters earlier, where she alleged Abbasi was taken into custody “without showing proper arrest warrants”.Shahbaz also convened a meeting of the PML-N’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) tomorrow (Saturday) in Lahore, according to a tweet on the party’s official Twitter handle. Senior leadership and other officials will attend the meeting where the arrest of party leaders will be discussed, as will inflation, unemployment, poverty reduction and economic affairs.The meeting will also discuss Nawaz Sharif’s ongoing incarceration and the Al-Azizia ruling, which the party says has not been overturned despite the removal of the accountability court judge from office.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/Li7GSHVD1nQ

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