LAHORE: The so-called accountability proceedings against the prime minister smack of political victimisation and the Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadees will stand by Nawaz Sharif in this hour of trial, says chief of the party Prof Sajid Mir.

Addressing his party’s working committee, he said corruption was bad for any society, but denial of the right to rule of an elected government was even worse. It had been a struggle for civilian supremacy and right (of a democratic government) to rule the country, he added.

Those who had been pressing the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for early completion of its report (in Panama case) were now trying to pressurise the prime minister into resigning, he said.

Mir said the (JIT) report itself reflected pressure from an institution that was exerted on its authors, adding that it was now clear that one “powerful organisation,” which also tapped telephones and kept record of electronic media, had its imprints all over the report.

He lamented that those who usurped the civilians’ rights had always escaped accountability.

Nawaz Sharif tried to try Pervez Musharraf, but was stopped, he said, alleging that now in the name of accountability, democracy was being hurt.

“Whenever the country starts getting stable, some unforeseen forces start conspiring against it,” he said.

“Targeting one person or a family would not help the cause of accountability. If it has to be achieved, an independent, transparent and uniform process has to be started, which should not, in any way, smack of victimisation,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PTI traders’ wing along with leaders of Lahore markets’ traders demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign immediately because charges of corruption and money laundering had been proved against him.

Speaking at a press conference at Lahore Press Club, PTI MPA Shoaib Siddiqui and office-bearers of the party’s traders’ wing, including Haji Tahir Naveed, Mian Tariq Feroze and Malik Zaman Naseeb, said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar used to say that the traders should be brought in the tax net but he himself had been found to be a tax defaulter and mastermind of money laundering. They said the PML-N government had received loan worth Rs13.7bn and they were blowing their trumpets of progress and development.

The traders demanded that all Sharif family members’ names be put on the exit control list and criminal cases be instituted against them.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017