Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) President and opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif lashed out at the PTI government and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cohort for levelling baseless corruption allegations against him and his family members for the last three years saying his and his family’s acquittal by the National Crime Agency of the UK had vindicated his position, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Addressing a presser at PML-N central secretariat in Model Town, Lahore on Wednesday, Shehbaz Sharif said there was a hullabaloo among the ranks and files of the government regarding his acquittal by the NCA of the United Kingdom.
“Honour and humiliation both are in the hands of God. I want to reveal the facts,” Shehbaz added.
He said his party leaders were put behind the bars but the government could not prove any corruption case against them. He said that Imran Khan wanted to put him in jail.
The PML-N president held that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) launched billions of rupees corruption cases against him and his family but they could prove nothing.
He explained that when the allegations levelled by the government against him ‘misfired’ in Daily Mail of the UK, then the PM Imran and coterie went to the NCA against him and his scions.
He told the media persons that in 2019, the NCA received a letter. “The NCA did not ask for documents and the government wrote a letter.”
He further informed that on Dec 9, 2019 the NCA officials met PM Advisor on Accountability Shahzad Akbar and the British agency started the corruption investigations against him and his sons.
After probing charges, the NCA submitted papers to a London court informing the court that it had closed investigations against him and his sons. The court after accepting the NCA probe report sealed it with its stamp.
“If any substantial thing came out in the probe, then it would have become a criminal case,” Shehbaz added.
He maintained that it was funny that there was a clamor that his son had been acquitted but he didn’t. He rued that a bundle of baseless allegations was dispatched to London in order to incriminate him, but not to avail.
UK’s West Minister Court on Monday acquitted Shehbaz and his son Salman in a money laundering case. The UK court also restored the frozen accounts of the PML-N president and his son in the same case.
The British National Crime Agency made 20 months-long investigations but couldn’t find any evidence of money laundering or any other criminal activity. The agency submitted its final report in the Westminster Court and gave a clean chit to the Sharif family members.
On the agency’s investigative report, the court declared Shehbaz and his son Salman "Not Guilty" in the money laundering case and restored their bank accounts.
The UK agency stared investigation on a request from the Government of Pakistan against Shehbaz and his family. Bank accounts of Shehbaz and Salman were frozen by the British agency in December 2019.
Criticizing PM Imran Khan, the PML-N president said that Imran kept repeating “I have got offshore accounts in which money is being transferred. It seems that I keep coming in Imran’s dreams day and night.”
He was of the view that the government did not humiliate the Sharifs, rather it humiliated the country.
The opposition leader in National Assembly said that they had four accounts in the UK. He opened his first account in England in 2014 which was closed in 2019.
“If I do not transfer my money to my son’s account in the UK then what do you reckon, in whose account should I deposit my money. Should I deposit my money in Shahzad Akbar’s account,” he questioned.
He said he was falsely accused of misappropriating the earthquake aid money in 2006. Nevertheless, he had gone abroad at that time, he added. He said he served the country honestly and dedicatedly for ten years.
He held that there was no doubt about the Niazi-NAB nexus. He maintained that at the behest of this nexus, a corruption probe was opened against him in Multan Metro bus project. But the government again could not prove any corruption charge against him in the said project.
People who want themselves to be called Sadiq (truthful) and Amin (honest) have spent billions to prove baseless corruption charges against him, Shehbaz regretted adding the government could not prove any corruption charge against him, his brother PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and other family members.
He said he provided proofs of his innocence to the FIA and NAB but ‘they say we do not cooperate.’
He asked the FIA had it launched a probe into the sewing machines corruption case against PM Khan’s sister Haleema Khan?