Shehbaz asks NAB chief to provide evidence to back up his claims against Sharifs

Opposition Leader in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz president Shehbaz Sharif has challenged the NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal to produce evidence that he or any member of the Sharif family contacted him, directly or indirectly, to offer plea bargains or any kind of deal, or else he should issue clarification and rebut the reports attributed to him.

Addressing a press conference here accompanied by Ishaq Dar, the PML-N president said that several days have passed since the NAB chairman made allegations against him, his brother Nawaz Sharif and son Hamza Shehbaz in an interview with a local paper. In the interview, the NAB chairman had alleged that Shehbaz and Hamza offered to pay him money for leniency in their cases, and that Nawaz Sharif had made a similar offer.

Shehbaz said he had not spoken to the NAB chairman, never met or contacted him. "There has been no direct or indirect contact. The claims on behalf of the NAB chairman have been made in a published interview. The NAB chairman must issue a clarification on the lies published in the article. I call on the NAB chief to provide evidence in support of his allegations," he said.

"I will quit politics forever if he provides any proof to back up his allegations. We reserve all our legal and constitutional rights."

The PML-N president said that he and Ishaq Dar had met party colleagues in London and updated them about the party's strategy in Pakistan. He said credit for ending load-shedding goes to Nawaz Sharif's government. Shehbaz said the PML-N government initiated energy projects in Pakistan and dedicated four years to end load-shedding. He said it was laughable that Imran Khan took credit for ending load-shedding in the country. The PML-N president said he had "never met or seen a bigger liar than Imran Khan all my life". He said the PTI government was responsible for creating fake crisis in 2014 onwards and stopped the Chinese president from coming to Pakistan. Shehbaz went on to say that the incumbent government has no economic plan for the future of Pakistan.

He said that his party would remain neutral on the recent scandal relating to NAB chief Javed Iqbal, but demanded the constitution of a parliamentary committee for probing the allegations.