PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has strongly reacted to the arrest of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and asked its workers to reach Islamabad on Friday (today) to show solidarity with the party’s vice-president Maryam Nawaz on the occasion of her appearance in an accountability court.

According to a statement issued here on Thursday, party’s provincial president Amir Muqam described the NAB cases against the party leadership as victimisation and asked the workers to take firm stand in support of the party at all costs.

He said that the rulers would not be able to suppress the PML-N leaders through use of state machinery, adding that the leaked video of a judge had unveiled the level of justice during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government.

Mr Muqam said that NAB should prove its impartiality by opening all the pending cases against PTI leaders. He said that accountability should be across the board to prove that the decisions were taken on the basis of evidence and merit.

Meanwhile, other PML-N leaders, including MNAs Dr Ibad Khan and Murtaza Javed Abbasi and provincial secretary information Ikhtiar Wali, visited parts of Peshawar, Mardan and Swabi and asked the workers to ensure their presence in Islamabad on Friday (today).

They party leaders condemned the arrest of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and blamed the government for gagging voice of public. They said that several PML-N leaders, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, were behind bars, but the government had failed to produce any concrete proof in courts against them in the relevant cases.

The PML-N leaders said that the government should withdraw the cases and stop victimisation of opposition leaders as such acts would bring a bad name to the country and its judiciary.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2019