Shehbaz Sharif slams PTI for ‘spewing lies’ against him and his family

LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday slammed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for “spewing lies” against him and his family in the wake of a recent UK court verdict.

Addressing a press conference days after a UK court unfroze his account, Shehbaz claimed that despite levelling various allegations against him and his brother, Nawaz Sharif, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have failed to prove an “ounce of corruption” done by them.

The leader of the opposition said that government actions were only bringing “disrepute” to the country.

The PML-N leader said that the PTI government had approached the National Crime Agency (NCA), UK’s top anti-corruption body, for a probe against him and his children.

Reading from the NCA’s documents submitted by the government at the start of the investigation, Shehbaz said that the UK agency had received a letter from the Pakistani government’s Asset Recovery Unit (ARU).

Reading further, he said the documents mentioned NAB Lahore DG Shahzad Saleem had met NCA’s operations manager and told the UK official that NAB would be “happy to assist in any subsequent investigation”.

Shehbaz said this was “proof” that the ministers “have been leading the nation astray in the last 48 hours” by claiming that Pakistan was approached by the NCA.

“I have been sent to jail twice during the last three years but when the government failed to prove corruption against me and my children, they approached the UK’s NCA,” claimed Shehbaz.

The PML-N president said the NCA had conducted a 17-month probe in which it examined his financial transactions of the last 20 years and found no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities.

“Finally, the UK agency asked the court that they wanted to end investigations against me, and the court approved the request,” said Shehbaz.

Criticising Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PML-N leader said: “NAB-Niazi nexus was a fixed match and now FIA is also working on the government’s directions.”

Furthermore, Shehbaz Sharif said he had lodged a defamation case against UK’s Daily Mail and asked the publication to provide evidence against him.

UK court unfreezes accounts

Earlier this week, a court in the UK ordered the unfreezing of the opposition leader’s bank accounts and those belonging to his son, Suleman Sharif.

The decision was taken by the court after the UK’s top anti-corruption body, the National Crime Agency (NCA) concluded there was no evidence of money laundering, fraud and criminal conduct against the two.