LAHORE: Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, who skipped the National Accountability Bureau hearing on Tuesday, said why Prime Minister Imran Khan was not investigated for the misuse of government helicopter.

Talking to reporters outside the assembly, Hamza said the Sharifs had faced accountability of Gen Musharraf regime for 10 years. “Now it is the time that Imran Khan Niazi should face accountability for misuse of helicopter. Babar Awan should be probed for looting Rs4bn in the Nandipur scam,” he said.

Imran Khan was an immature politician as tsunami of inflation and price hike had made the lives of the people miserable, he added.

He demanded NAB probe PM Khan’s sister Aleema Khan in offshore holdings case and Jehangir Tareen (in assets beyond means case). “The NAB is after me, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Khwaja Saad Rafique, Khwaja Asif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,” he said.

To a question about the ‘extended’ stay of his father in London, Hamza said: “Shahbaz Sharif was getting treatment for cancer there and will return soon.”

He said that he often got confused about PM’s advisor Firdous Ashiq Awan status that whether she was a spokesperson for the PTI or the PPP.

Meanwhile, Hamza neither appeared before a combined investigation team of NAB Lahore nor submitted a reply to a questionnaire in money laundering and assets beyond means cases.

NAB has also summoned Ayesha Ahad Malik, who claims to be Hamza’s wife, in this case.

According to sources, NAB summoned Ms Malik after some bank transactions worth millions of rupees had been detected between the couple.

Earlier, the NAB had arrested five suspects in connection with the money laundering and income beyond means case against PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, his sons, Hamza and Salman.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2019