Under newly-amended NAB laws, accountability courts have started sending back corruption references to anti-graft watchdog as they do not fall under NAB purview.
ISLAMABAD - Former interior minister and head of Awami Muslim League, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has hoped that the Supreme Court will restore all the corruption references against the rulers after the annulment of amendments made to the NAB laws.
Under the newly-amended NAB laws, the accountability courts have started sending back corruption references to the anti-graft watchdog as they didn’t fall under NAB purview. The accountability courts have recently sent back several references, including the one against Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz (Ramzan Sugar Mills) and former premiers Yousaf Raza Gilani (USF) and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (rental power projects), to the NAB chairman, citing the amended legislation.
Rashid also announced to go to the high court to challenge the appointment of 70 ministers which he said, is against the constitution. The former minister’s comments come as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led coalition government’s federal cabinet swelled to 70 members after Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif appointed eight more special assistants for himself, apparently in an attempt to keep the allies in good humour at state’s expense. With the eight new special assistants to the premier, the cabinet now consists of 34 federal ministers, including one without portfolio, seven ministers of state, four advisers to the PM and 25 SAPMs.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Sheikh Rashid wrote, “God willing, the Supreme Court will restore the 150 corruption references against the rulers. The NAB amendments will be declared null and void and 10 million overseas Pakistanis will get the right to vote. The number of 70 ministers is against the constitution. I will go to the High Court against it. The economic crisis has become very serious”. He further said that the PDM has drowned the nation in the sea of inflation adding all records of inflation have been broken. For the last three days, the government has not been allowed to decrease POL prices owing to pressure being exerted by the petrol mafia, he said further. “Reconciliation or resistance is going to be decided. Ministers cannot go to their constituencies. Bilawal comes to Pakistan as a guest actor and does not go to office,” he said on social media. Rashid further said that twenty-one ministers are without any portfolio.