ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz has threatened the government to release party lawmaker Khawaja Asif, saying that the latter must be released shortly otherwise the situation would get worse.
“The ‘selected’ government is visibly fraught with distress over Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and is now going for desperate measures,” Maryam said, while talking to journalists following Asif’s arrest made by NAB in ‘assets beyond means’ case.
The PML-N leader said that Khawaja Asif’s arrest is an attempt to intimidate us, adding that there would be a strong reaction at PDM’s meeting tomorrow. “Asif’s arrest goes on to show how anxious the government has become as it reckoned the power of PDM,” she added.
Slamming the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Maryam Nawaz asked why the accountability watchdog was overlooking the ‘thieves’ of flour, sugar, and LNG. Maryam claimed that Asif is not arrested but is kidnapped and that NAB detained him on the behest of Imran Khan.
“Even the courts acknowledged that NAB has become a tool of political engineering,” she said, adding that the Chairman NAB has no right to go about openly terrorizing the opposition.
She further said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was using the accountability bureau for political vengeance. “Such decisions are being taken out of fear of defeat by the government,” she added.
Maryam questioned the authority of the ‘fake government’ to call back Nawaz Sharif, saying that first it made all efforts to send him abroad and now it wants him back. “Nawaz Sharif did not promise to come back before making a full recovery,” she maintained.
However, she refused to comment on the speculation that PPP had made resignations conditional with the return of Nawaz Sharif, saying that such news is not from sources but from someone else.
