Abbasi arrested for non-compliance with law: Firdous

LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Thursday said former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was  arrested for non-compliance with the law as he defied the NAB summons time and again.

Addressing a press conference at the Chief Minister's Secretariat here, she said Khaqan was summoned by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) four times, but he did not turn up and also did not secure a pre-arrest bail.

"All those powerful politicians who considered themselves above the law in the past will have to bow before the law now," she said, adding that the accused should prove themselves innocent and seek justice from the courts as the institutions were free in the country today.

Firdous said that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had pledged to stand by Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif in the hour of need, but he looked dismayed and frustrated after his arrest. She said Abbasi and the PML-N leadership were only raising fingers at the government institutions and the government, especially Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She said the opposition's criticism of the prime minister had proved that they nurtured ill-will and personal animosity against Imran Khan.

She said Prime Minister Imran Khan had ensured supremacy of the law in the country. Nobody was above the law today and all citizens were being governed by the law of the land, she added.

Referring to the PML-N president's press conference, she said Shehbaz Sharif had badly failed to defend allegations against him and he was bent upon making his son-in-law Ali Imran the "son of the nation."

She said that the PML-N leadership had run abroad while it had left the nation in the sea of foreign debts,adding that the government was determined to make them bring their overseas properties back to Pakistan.

She said only those who had a skeleton in their cupboards were raising hue and cry; otherwise, they should surrender themselves to the law and prove their innocence.

Regarding victimisation of the opposition, the special assistant said that it was mere blame-game and the government had made its own ministers answerable before the law, adding that the sitting Local Government Minister of the PTI was arrested by NAB, prosecuted and faced cases.

She said the Punjab forest minister was also arrested by NAB and such cases were unprecedented in the political history of the country when the sitting government ministers were sent behind the bars.

To another query, Firdous said Prime Minister Imran Khan had ensured that all were equal before the law, adding that the corrupt would face accountability across the board.