PML-N requisitions NA session over Shehbaz Sharif's arrest

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday requisitioned a National Assembly (NA) session over party president Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest.

A PML-N delegation headed by Raja Zafarul Haq and comprising Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Murtaza Javed Abbasi among others visited NA speaker Asad Qaiser's residence to submit the requisition.

The requisition demands that a debate be held in the Lower House over the arrest of the leader of the opposition in NA.

Speaking to the media after submitting the requisition, PML-N leader Zafarul Haq said, “Shehbaz was arrested without any reason.”

Further, former NA speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said, "We have requisitioned the NA session after consultation with the opposition."

Hoping that a NA session will be called in the next two days, the PML-N leader said, "The requisition was officially submitted on October 6 which means the session has to be called in 14 days, however, we have requested the speaker to not wait for the entire 14 days and call the session as soon as possible."

"I will try contact Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and speak to them about not creating any hindrance," Sadiq added.

"Shehbaz was called for the Saaf Pani case and detained in the Asiahana Housing case. This is a case in which Shehbaz canceled the contract and gave it to the anti-corruption unit," he said and added that "not a single penny of the government was lost".

"This is political victimisation and statements from ministers prove that," Sadiq asserted. 

"What is happening is not only in front of the people of Pakistan but the entire world," he added.

The PML-N president was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case.

Shehbaz was arrested when he appeared before NAB to record his statement in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case.

According to sources, Shehbaz was arrested after Fawad Hasan Fawad, the then implementation secretary, told NAB that he carried out corrupt activities in projects in Punjab on orders from Shehbaz, who was the chief minister then. NAB had also received information from Fawad Hasan’s laptop, from which data was retrieved after his arrest.