MULTAN, Dec 13: Former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said he will not appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the National Assurance Company Limited (NACP) scam, come what may.

Talking to reporters here on Friday, he said he was being pressurised to keep the PPP out of local government elections in Punjab.

Mr Gilani said that as a former prime minister he enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution and, therefore, no-one could arrest him.

He said he was imprisoned before each election. “Local government elections are going to be held shortly and my opponents don’t want to see me free at that time.” But, he added, his party would participate in the elections at any cost.Mr Gilani said NAB used to work under the supervision of the prime minister. But because he did not believe in political victimisation he had placed it under the administrative control of Law and Justice Division when he was prime minister.

But now, he added, he and members of his family were being politically victimised. “Cases are being lodged against me. Despite my son Abdul Qadir Gilani has been acquitted in the Haj scam, a fake degree case has been registered against him. Cases have been lodged against Ali Musa Gilani. Ali Haider Gilani has been kidnapped.”

Mr Gilani said all this was being done to keep him and members of his family under pressure.

The former prime minister said the National Reconciliation Ordinance benefited more than 4,000 people, but he who did not get any relief under the ordinance was being punished.He said if the government wanted to arrest him it needed to amend the constitution. “The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has majority in the parliament and can amend the constitution, but if the government arrests me today the same will happen to Nawaz Sharif one day.”

He said that although Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani belonged to a political family, he was a professional judge and hopefully he would not involve in politics.Answering a question about the possibility of a local political figure’s involvement in the kidnapping of his son, Mr Gilani said he would not mention a name because that could affect the investigation.

He said that if the former chief justice was sincere with the masses he should have sent former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf behind bars at least for a day. “When a speaker of the National Assembly and an elected prime minister can be imprisoned, what is wrong in sending a military dictator behind bars?”

He said it was regrettable that Gen Musharraf was not sent to jail even for a single day. He said Musharraf and the people who supported him should be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution.