ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday slammed the government’s allegations against Shehbaz Sharif and demanded direct evidence against his family.
Talking to reporters, PML-N Secretary lnformation Marriyum Aurangzeb said that PM’s aide on accountability Shahzad Akbar’s press conference was a “plethora of blatant lies without any proof which is a part of vicious smear campaign against the Sharif family”.
She challenged him to publicly present concrete evidence of a direct link of Shehbaz with any of the accusations levelled against him. She asked him to prove Shehbaz’s association with any of these businesses, cheques or companies that he “lied about in the presser”. She also dared him to produce a single cheque with the name of Shehbaz, Hamza or Salman on it.
The former information minister said that every single business owned by the Sharif family is declared with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in accordance with the law. “Instead of blurting out lies at press conferences, Shahzad must tell name of any company through which the Sharif family conducts its business and is not declared with the FBR,” she said.
Marriyum said the fourth challenge to Shahzad is that he must publicly reveal any contracts of personal enrichment done by Shehbaz while he was building hundreds of billions worth of metro bus projects, power plants, roads, motorways and hospitals. “He must also make public authentic proof that can hold in court who submitted these cheques for which contract in Shehbaz’s account,” she said.
She challenged Shahzad to prove with undeniable evidence what illegal procedures were adopted in the companies in question and which specific laws were violated. “He needs to stop levelling hollow, baseless and fictitious accusations and show with proof where exactly was corruption done and of what nature and what amount was transacted under which kickbacks,” she lambasted.
Marriyum said these press conferences are the worst example of defamation and political harassment and Shehbaz and the Sharif family cannot be cornered by such “heinous witch-hunts” and “smear campaigns”.
