LAHORE - Chairman Pakistan Peoples’ Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday said there was no justification left for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to continue to exist following the Supreme Court verdict raising serious questions regarding its working.
“I have always said that NAB is being used for political engineering and now the Supreme Court has also vindicated my stance. NAB should be closed”, he said while addressing a press conference in the provincial capital. “If the NAB chairman has any shame then he should resign and go home.”
Bilawal also challenged NAB’s impartiality, saying that if it were to implement the Supreme Court’s judgment then it will have to arrest all the Advisors and Special Assistants to the Prime Minister, besides making arrests in the foreign funding case, BRT project, Malam Jabba and other cases.
Answering a question from journalists, he said that all the people which were in NAB’s custody should be released, including Khursheed Shah. He said that PPP condemned NAB for calling Shehbaz Sharif to appear before it. “No one should play politics on anybody’s health. Shehbaz Sharif is a cancer patient”.
Replying to a question, Bilawal Bhutto said that a delegation of PML-N called on him and they discussed different options and also formed committees for All Parties Conference of the opposition parties. He said a detailed agenda was being prepared for the APC keeping in mind the needs of the people of Pakistan. He added that the APC will be held after Shahbaz Sharif has recovered from his illness. Bilawal also said that APC would decide the future course of political activities in the country.
He said that the working relationship between the PPP and the PML-N was cordial. “We will work together. Whatever decision has to be taken; it will be taken jointly by the opposition”
He said that PML-N emerged as the largest party in Punjab after 2018 elections but the PTI formed the government by political engineering. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he was still waiting for government’s response about the terrorist Ehsanullah Ehsan.
“The Prime Minister called Osama Bin Laden a ‘Shaheed’ and we are still waiting for his clarification. Whenever I criticise the PTI government, Ehsanullah Ehsan threatens me personally and the party as well. How did Ehsanullah Ehsan escape from detention? Who was responsible for his escape? In whose custody was Ehsanullah Ehsan when he successfully escaped? Why were cases not initiated against them?”
Bilawal Bhutto went on to say, “the results of the selected governments are before us. The economy, democracy and the society suffer the most due to such selected governments. Everybody is in loss when an engineered government is imposed upon the people of Pakistan. The country is about to enter in its worst economic crisis. We are going through a pandemic and attacks on our crops by locusts. Now, the political engineering should end. The government is trying to bring legislation in the name of FATF which will usurp all basic human rights. The PPP has always been ready to support legislation against terrorism but if you do not fight terrorism then PPP cannot support the government”