LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has demanded the National Accountability Bureau should equally treat all accused in various cases, irrespective of their party affiliations.

He has also asked Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a former ally of the party, not to go “too far” in defending the Sharifs.

“The cases of PPP, PML-N and PTI should not be treated differently by the NAB authorities,” he said here on Wednesday while talking to the media after inquiring after known Urdu columnist Munnoo Bhai.

“Accountability system should be same for all political parties, instead of the current practice of treating the cases of different parties differently.”

Earlier, he also visited Dilawar Butt, an old jiyala, in a departure from the past practice of holding meetings only at Bilawal House.

Mr Bilawal said there should be no difference in dealing with the NAB cases against (PPP’s) Sharjeel Memon and ousted premier Nawaz Sharif. Whether the accused belong to the N League, PPP or PTI they should be treated under the same law, he added.

He recalled that names of two former prime ministers (Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Parvez Ashraf) had been included in the Exit Control List (ECL) after being named in certain cases, while no such action was taken against Nawaz Sharif.

Responding to a query, he said the PPP didn’t change its stance on census, rather it provisionally accepted results of the census to avert constitutional crisis regarding holding of the 2018 polls in time.

He held the Nawaz League responsible for making the census controversial, saying that the PPP people from Karachi to FATA were objecting to the results of the exercise.

He regretted that the government took no step to remove these reservations.

He categorically denied that any move was underway to make ex-president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif sit together for a patch-up.

The PPP chief told a questioner that Nawaz Sharif played a role in each conspiracy hatched against the democracy in the country during the last three decades.

Answering a question, he said that he respected JUI-F president Maualana Fazlur Rehman but the latter was going “too far” in defending Nawaz Sharif. He advised the Maulana to look into affairs of his own party (JUIF) as Nawaz Sharif was facing “self-created” problems.

Meanwhile, the PPP has got prepared special containers to be used by the party chairperson for addressing public meetings ahead of 2018 general election and during the electioneering.

The containers are equipped with hologram technology which can show a person speaking live to an audience though physically he may not be present there.

Earlier, Bilawal met a delegation of Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) and condemned alleged forced disappearance of its leader Nasir Sherazi.

In the wake of MWM allegation that the Punjab government was behind the enforced disappearance, the PPP leader said that those talking of democracy should also manifest a democratic attitude in the province.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2017