ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties believe that after the verdict of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to grant bail to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has now no justification to demand resignation of Mr Sharif from the office of the chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The two main opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — say that the court’s judgement has proved that the demand for Mr Sharif’s resignation was “totally unjustified and uncalled for”.

On the other hand, the PTI says that its demand that the opposition leader should step down from the PAC chairman’s office is still valid and justified as the LHC has not acquitted him in any of the cases and he has only got a little relief in the form of bail.

Fawad insists opposition leader must step down

A two-judge LHC bench on Thursday accepted Mr Sharif’s request for bail in the Ashiyana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases. Mr Sharif, who is also the PML-N president, has been under custody of the National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) in Lahore since October last year in connection with the Ashiyana housing case.

Since his detention, Mr Sharif has had been regularly attending sessions of the National Assembly and presiding over meetings of the PAC. The government has declared his official house in the Ministers’ Enclave as sub-jail.

The court’s decision has come just three days before the start of the new session of the National Assembly which Mr Sharif will be attending without waiting for issuance of his production order by the speaker.

Political experts believe that the decision must have provided a relief to the speaker who has been under pressure from both the government and the opposition on the issue of the production order.

“Now after the court’s verdict, it has become all the more obvious that the demand for the resignation of Shahbaz Sharif from the PAC was unjustified and uncalled for,” said PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar, when contacted.

Similarly, talking to Dawn, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the PTI’s entire existence, from atop the container to treasury benches, was founded on “demonising” the PML-N leadership with “baseless corruption allegations”.

“Now that these accusations have started falling flat on their faces one after the other, the foundation of the PTI’s existence has been dismantled and it is falling like a house of cards,” said a jubilant spokesperson for the PML-N.

Ms Aurangzeb said that the devastation of the PTI as a result of any decision based on merit was easily palpable by its desperate attempts at bullying the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through unwarranted criticism.

She said the PML-N leadership, unlike Prime Minister Imran Khan and his sister Aleema Khan, had stuck to their ground, faced courts despite reservations and proved their innocence and transparency whenever due procedure and merit prevailed.

Ms Aurangzeb expressed the hope that after this verdict, the ministers who had been demanding Mr Sharif’s resignation from the PAC would keep their mouth shut.

Referring to the press conference of Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry after a meeting of the federal cabinet, she said that the unwarranted criticism of NAB by the minister showed the PTI’s desperation.

“This aggressive affront of the bureau in the press conference once again reaffirms how the PTI is constantly trying to bully and influence NAB,” she said.

In his news conference, Mr Chaudhry had said that there was a need for NAB to look inward and see what problems they were plagued with for not being able to nab a “big fish”.

“Is it their prosecution that is flawed? Or is it their investigation? NAB should put its case before the people and should tell them why they are unable to pursue the matter all the way,” the minister had said, adding that Mr Sharif’s bail had sent a negative message to society once more, that influential people slipped away like fish from the grip of the law.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Chaudhry said that he believed that NAB should go to file an appeal against the LHC’s “strange verdict” which had granted bail to the person who had issued “illegal orders” whereas it had rejected the bail pleas of those who had implemented the orders.

When asked about the opposition’s demand that Prime Minister Imran Khan, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and a number of other PTI leaders were also facing NAB cases and they should first step down from their offices before demanding Mr Sharif’s resignation, the information minister said that the nature of cases against the prime minister and that of Mr Sharif was entirely different.

Mr Chaudhry, who is also a lawyer by profession, said that charges against Mr Khan and Mr Khattak had not been formally framed. He gave the examples of Babar Awan and Aleem Khan, who had resigned from their offices soon after framing of charges against them. He said the LHC had not acquitted Mr Sharif of the charges and, therefore, the PTI believed that he should immediately step down from the PAC chairmanship till the final decision in the cases against him.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2019