LAHORE - Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz Sharif has accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of hiding behind the NAB to escape a probe into the helicopter use case.

The façade of the PTI government is democratic, but intrinsically it is a product of rigged elections, Hamza said while talking to the media here yesterday.

Hamza termed Imran Khan a ‘fake prime minister’ and said he was hiding himself behind NAB when the question of illegal use of KP helicopter for personal reasons has come up. Khan hurls threats at the Opposition daily but he himself is not willing to follow the law, he said adding, his threats in fact show he fears PML-N inside. He said the masses are looking at what the PTI government is doing against the political opponents. Creating an analogy between NAB and Mansha Bomb, he said Mansha encroached upon people’s properties and NAB encroached upon people’s freedom. He said that PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was summoned in Saaf Paani case but arrested in Ashiyana Housing project case. The NAB has nothing against Shehbaz and it is beating about the bush in the trial court, he added. He named members of the federal cabinet who in his view were wanted to NAB. He said that Pervez Khattak, Parvez Elahi and Aleem Khan are facing NAB investigations.

Hamza said that robbery of the public mandate was committed in the last general elections and the nation will do accountability of those responsible for it. He said Allah Almighty would help Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif come out of this difficult phase successfully.

Also, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that cluttering of the PTI government is increasing with every passing day and placement of containers to block PML-N workers’ way to the trial court where Shehbaz Sharif was brought for hearing, was proof of this.

Shehbaz Sharif has been taken into custody on baseless charges whereof the government’s confusion is adding up with every passing day, Marriyum said while talking to the media here yesterday. She accused the PTI government of taking undemocratic steps and preventing movement of the PML-N workers around the Accountability Court last day and said, these measures cannot deter the workers or dampen their spirit and love with their leaders. She questioned what the government wanted to hide from the masses by disallowing them to see to their leader. She reminded that the PML-N government did not put restrictions when the PTI was staging a sit-in in which activists of the PTI had attacked the Parliament building and entered the PTV premises.