If NAB is being used to pressurise opposition, then we are ready: Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said party members are ready if the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is going to be used to pressurise the opposition.

Addressing a National Assembly session, Abbasi said, “Opposition Leader [Shehbaz Sharif] was arrested and till date a case could not be formed against him. Accountability institutions are being used to exert pressure on opposition parties."

“We are not against accountability but the way pressure is being exerted on opposition is against democratic laws and the Parliament. Saad Rafique has said on the assembly floor that he is not related to the case,” the former premier asserted.

Abbasi continued, “Hamza Shehbaz is the opposition leader in Punjab Assembly and his name is not on the Exit Control List (ECL) yet the Federal Investigation Agency stopped him at the airport. Zulfi Bukhari’s name is on the ECL but the prime minister takes him along for Umrah and nobody asks about it.”

“What is happening today is nothing compared to what was happening during Pervez Musharraf's tenure but that was the era of a dictator. There was no democracy at that time but there is today," he upheld.

Abbasi further said, "The National Assembly speaker should not save members from accountability but should save them from revenge.” 

“The country has failed the ministers but the prime minister has passed them,” he added.

“Today, NAB members are levelling allegations against opposition members. If media trials are held today then where will we get justice tomorrow?” Abbasi asked.

The PML-N leader further said, “The prime minister’s helicopter case is in NAB and if the opposition leader can be arrested then the leader of the House can also be arrested in the case. There is a case against Punjab Assembly speaker, arrest him too. There is a Malam Jabba case against the defence minister and he should be arrested as well.”

“An accountability bureau of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was set up and billions were spent but there was no one to ask. There was a court order against Jahangir Tareen but he is also roaming free,” the former premier said.

Responding to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s statements, Abbasi said that the NAB chairman was appointed after his previous performance. "If you want to do accountability, start from me and every member should reveal what they owned when they came into power.”

“Accountability should start from this House and members should share how much tax they pay. You have the department and the records. You should investigate this corruption,” he told Chaudhry.

Questioning "what corruption was done during the PML-N's term", the former prime minster said, "If the standard that has been set for Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif and Saad Rafique is set for the current government then half the House will be inside [prison]."

"What NAB is doing today that is not accountability but the way for ruin and destruction of the country. Bureaucrats don’t work today. There is a Rs4.5 billion case against OGRA chairman Tauqeer Sadiq and seven years have passed but nothing has happened,” he lamented.