Returned to face allegations, says defiant Sharjeel Memon

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples' Party senior leader Sharjeel Memon on Sunday said that he came back to Pakistan to face the allegations against him, as he is not the one to run away from problems.

Memon, who was recently released after a brief detention by the National Accountability Bureau from Islamabad airport, was holding a press conference in the capital.

“I wasn’t arrested at the airport, I was abducted,” he said on the subject of his two-and-a-half hour detention.

He said that he was going abroad for medical purposes and had prior permission from Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah.

He said that all of a sudden his name was put on the Exit Control List, following which he contacted the Sindh High Court over the matter.

“Putting my name on the ECL is an extreme measure,” said Memon.

The PPP leader said that a reference was filed against him, although the SHC approved his bail.

“For the PPP, the law of the country is entirely different,” he said.

The allegations are equally embarrassing for the party, said the PPP leader.

Memon was taken into custody from Islamabad airport by the NAB personnel immediately after his arrival from Dubai, after two years. Memon arrived in the country along with the Sindh ministers, Mukesh Chawla, Imdad Pitafi, Fayyaz Ali Butt and Nawab Taimur Talpur.

According to sources privy to the development, six plain-cloth personnel under the deputy director of NAB's crime wing took Memon into their custody from Benazir Bhutto International Airport on the advice of NAB`s Karachi division immediately when he came outside from the flight, EK-614. The provincial legislator was shifted to an undisclosed location.   

Sharjeel Memon is scheduled to appear before the court on Monday.

NAB has filed a reference against Memon and 10 others in an accountability court of Karachi for alleged corruption of around Rs5.76billion.

Besides Memon, other accused include Zulfiqar Ali Shallwani, Aneeta Baloch, Mansoor Ahmed Rajput, Mohammad Yousuf Kaboro, Inaam Akbar, Altaf Hussain Memon, Riyaz Manir, Fazal Mehmood, Mohammad Hanif, Asim, Masood Hashmi, Gulzar Ali, Suleman Mansoor Umer, Syed Naveed and Sarang Latif Chandio.   

Memon was living in a self-imposed exile for more than two years in Dubai and London.