Nawaz Sharif's acquittal exposes PTI regime’s political vendetta: Marriyum

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said Thursday that the acquittal of thrice-elected prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Quaid Nawaz Sharif in the plot allotment reference by an accountability court in Lahore clearly showed a political vendetta of the last PTI regime.

Addressing a press conference, she said the plots allotment case related to the tenure when Nawaz Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab.

She said the owner of a leading media house was arrested in a fake case just to pressurize the media to toe the line of the then rulers. Similarly, journalists were arrested and targeted only to curb dissent views, and on that account the then prime minister was given the title of a ‘predator’ at international level.

She said today’s verdict of the accountability court was an eye-opener for those who had blindly followed the fake narrative of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

She said in the so-called illegal plots allotment reference it was alleged that Nawaz Sharif as Punjab chief minister had specifically favoured Mir Shakeelur Rehman to manage favourable media coverage.

She said under the ‘NAB- Niazi nexus’, the National Accountability Bureau was given the task to to target political opponents of the PTI chief.

The minister said today, the accountability court had affirmed that Nawaz Sharif was targeted to have political avenge. The court also noted that no evidence of corruption was found against the PML-N Quaid, which led to his honourable acquittal.

It was also pointed out that no legal requirements were fulfilled for declaring Nawaz Sharif as an absconder, she said, adding the process to target the PML-N chief and his family had commenced with changing ‘Panama to Iqama’.

The minister opined that the objective of Asset Recovery Unit was to target and victimize the PTI chief’s political opponents, and gag the media. Now it was the divine justice that Shahzad Akbar had no courage to face the public on that count.

With pressure on NAB, they managed to get false cases instituted against Nawaz Sharif, she added.

Marriyum cited the court verdict: “The record reflects that the accused Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had become the victim of political victimization, and perhaps the NAB authorities were constrained to prepare the reference at the behest of the then ruling junta to damage and destroy the political career and goodwill of the accused (Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) who had been three times elected prime minister of Pakistan.”

She said the accountability court had categorically stated that Nawaz Sharif was politically victimised. The then regime used all possible means and resources to target and victimize the opponents, she added.

The minister said from 2017 to 2022, Nawaz Sharif not only presented himself along with his daughter, his brother and his brother’s family, but also provided documents of his late father related to the past 40 years business record.

“This is the moment of concern for those who are still under influence of a person who had brought destruction to the country, rendered youth jobless and ruined the national economy, besides clearing the way for return of terrorists and load shedding in the country.”

She said the country would not have been facing the scourge of load-shedding had the previous PTI government focused on performance instead of resorting to political victimization.

Not a single megawatt of electricity was added to the national grid during the last government while Nawaz Sharif as prime minister had made an addition of 14,000 MW and incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif over 5,000 MW in Punjab as its chief minister.

She said ironically, a ‘drama of building 350 dams’ was orchestrated by the PTI regime just to fool the people and extract money from them.

A former chief justice of Pakistan, Saqib Nisar, would have to explain the reasons of “misdeeds” that paved the way for a “conspiracy against the country and its three times prime minister Nawaz Sharif”, she added.

The minister said the today’s court decision had exposed that how the PTI chief was brought to power and Nawaz Sharif was ousted from political arena by “managing the judicial system”.

She said human rights violations were committed during tenure of previous government which had lodged the opposition leaders in death cells of prisons, causing deterioration of their health, which was later even confirmed by its health minister in Punjab.

Ironically, today the PTI chairman was making a false hue and cry about human rights violations, she added.

The minister held the PTI chief responsible for load-shedding, saying it was Nawaz Sharif who had come with the mega CPEC project, besides roads network across the country. He even managed massive electricity generation at the time when a conspiracy was being hatched agaisnt his government, she recalled.

She said Shehbaz Sharif was arrested twice as opposition leader just to muzzle his voice and all the fake cases were dismissed by the courts.

The minister said the PTI chief tried to damage the political career of Nawaz Sharif, but the latter had rested his case with the Almighty and he was finally vindicated.

“I was present in the court room when the judge of the Islamabad High Court said that not a single piece of evidence has been submitted to prove allegation in the Avenfeild case against Maryam Nawaz by NAB.”

The minister said Maryam Nawaz also stood vindicated in that case as the court in its order noted that if there had been no commitment of the crime then how abetting could happen. That decision had also indicated that Nawaz Sharif did not commit any crime and should be acquitted, she added.

Marriyum said all such court decisions against the three time prime minister should be revisited to restore the people’s confidence.

She said the government strongly condemned incident of desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden. A national campaign has been launched to send a message to the world for respect for Islam and other religions.