PPP terms Shehbaz’s arrest ‘insult to Parliament’

ISLAMABAD: Senior leader of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Khursheed Shah has condemned the arrest of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, saying it is an insult to the parliament.

“The government is taking such steps due to the failure of its 100-day programme,” said Shah in a statement and added that the PTI should avoid the ‘politics of revenge’.

Sindh Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani said the detention of Shehbaz Sharif in Ashiana Housing Scheme scam after he was summoned by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Saaf Pani case as ‘unfair’, adding that the arrest would  make the anti-corruption watchdog controversial.

Addressing a press conference, Ghani said the arrest will, in fact, benefit Shehbaz Sharif. “The biggest failure of the NAB is the Nawaz Sharif case. This case will also meet the same fate,” he said, adding that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani had righty talked about the abolition of the NAB.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) earlier today presented Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif before an accountability court to seek his physical remand in the Rs14 billion Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing project scam.

The PML-N leader was transported to the court in an armored vehicle amid tight security.

As Shehbaz reached the court, dozens of charged PML-N workers besieged his vehicle with some getting on it and chanting slogans in favour of their leader.

They tried to obstruct the police from presenting Shehbaz before the court. The police personnel forced them to disembark from the vehicle and escorted the PML-N leader into the accountability judge’s chamber where the hearing of the case is underway.

Shehbaz was arrested yesterday inside NAB’s Lahore office where he was summoned to record his statement in connection with the embezzlement cases.