LONDON - PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that his assets were frozen due to the nexus between Prime Minister Imran Khan and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). “I have always said that a nexus between Imran Niazi and NAB exists,” he said. “However, their alliance failed yet again.”

His remarks came a day after PTI senior counsel Naeem Bokhari withdrew a set of appeals challenging bail granted to Shehbaz in Ashiana case and Ramzan Sugar Mills case.

Addressing a news conference in London yesterday, Shehbaz discussed the court proceedings and criticised how “despite a large number of NAB prosecutors”, PTI’s Naeem Bukhari had appeared to defend the case. “When Naeem Bukhari sahib saw things are not panning out for him, he voluntarily withdrew his applications which had sought the cancellation of my bail.”

Shehbaz said he had been summoned to court to attend hearing of the clean drinking water case but was arrested for his alleged corruption in the Ashiana housing scheme case. “On February 14, 2019, the court gave me bail on merit in the two cases,” he said.

Shehbaz said Pakistan had progressed a lot during the Nawaz Sharif government. “Loadshedding spanned for as many as 20 hours before our government was elected,” he said. “Nawaz Sharif used resources of the nation to produce 5,000 MW electricity.”

Shehbaz said Prime Minister Imran and his advisors had been issuing statements against the PML-N leadership for the past one-and-a-half year.

The PML-N president slammed the prime minister and labelled him a ‘master of U-turns’. “I have never in my life seen a prime minister who lies as much as Imran Khan,” he said. “Had he spent one-fourth of his time for Pakistan’s development circumstances would have been different today.”

Shehbaz said the government had not built a single home in the past one-and-a-half year when it had promised people five million houses.

“The failed policies of the PTI government have resulted in unemployment rising in Pakistan. We are burying ourselves in debt,” he said.

He said there were some ministers in the government who had used their political influence to have loans written off. “Those who were involved in corruption, you made them your advisors,” he said.