LAHORE, Oct 12: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says the Accountability Bill moved by the People’s Party government is aimed at protecting the corrupt instead of rooting out corruption.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he said: “This is not a bill but a safe passage for the thieves, dacoits and looters.”

Shahbaz said from the very first day he had been calling the “ruling gang of Islamabad as Ali Baba and 40 thieves”, and by presenting this bill, the PPP leadership had endorsed this fact.

Terming the bill a 2012 edition of the NRO, he said its basic purpose was to provide protection to those who looted national wealth and saving them from the clutches of law.

But, he asserted, the end of this bill would not be different from that of the NRO.

The chief minister said that even if the ruling party, owing to its numerical majority, got the bill approved, his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, would annul this “shameless” law immediately after coming into power.  — Staff Reporter