Batons, stones, shells, chaos as Maryam arrives for a NAB date

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The PML-N workers and police clashed on Tuesday outside NAB’s Thokar Niaz Baig office where party leader Maryam Nawaz had arrived to record her statement in a land allotment case.

The situation took an ugly turn when a large number of PML-N workers escorting their leader insisted on entering the NAB premises, resulting in a violent clash with law enforcers. Apart from the PML-N convoy, League workers were already present outside the NAB to express support to Maryam Nawaz.

They tried to remove the barricades time and again before the arrival of their leader and were resisted by a heavy contingent of law-enforcers. The already tense situation grew more intense with Maryam Nawaz’s arrival when her convoy along with already present workers insisted on entering the NAB building but they were refused entry.

Some PML-N workers threw plastic water bottles at policemen who in retaliation fired aerial shots. Then the PML-N workers started pelting policemen with stones they had brought with them. The charged workers tried to break through the barriers placed outside the NAB office which led the police to use teargas and throw back stones. The policemen also used water cannon and pepper sprays to disperse the workers.

Sensing the situation, Maryam Nawaz kept her distance but a stone smashed the windscreen of her bullet-proof vehicle with her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar behind the wheel.

In the meanwhile, the NAB asked Maryam Nawaz to return as it could not record her statement in such a deteriorated situation. Upon this, Maryam’s vehicle started moving and it seemed that she was going back. However, after taking a U-turn, she was again among her workers and party leaders.

No official came out of the NAB office and the bureau’s closed doors were not opened. Meanwhile, it was officially announced by the NAB that the hearing of Maryam had been postponed after which Maryam left.

She had just left the scene when the police launched an intense crackdown on the PML-N workers, baton-charged and arrested over two dozen workers. Later, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz told a press conference that the NAB had plotted to attack her by sending a vague call-up notice.

She said the NAB-Niazi nexus had committed a suicide attack in panic. She said she would have been badly hurt had her vehicle not been bullet-proof. The windscreen of her vehicle was smashed by people apparently clad in police uniform. Speaking at Model Town, she said she had personally witnessed state terrorism, torture and mess for the first time in her life. She said she had just reached outside the NAB office when the men in uniform started pelting stones and teargas shelling from behind the barricades.

She was flanked by senior PML-N leaders Rana Sanaullah, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pervez Rasheed, Daniyal Aziz, Talal Chaudhry, Shaista Pervez Malik, Muhammad Zubair, Malik Pervez and Khwaja Imran Nazir along with party workers in large numbers were also present there.

Maryam said the state of fear and terrorism that she faced had exposed how much the government was afraid of the PML-N. She condemned the attack on PML-N workers and paid tribute to them for their love for her and party leader Nawaz Sharif. She termed Tuesday’s incident an act of “state-terrorism”, adding that she had witnessed cops in uniform pelting stones at political workers and leaders, leaving many injured. She saluted the workers who remained steadfast despite the batoncharge, aerial firing and tear-gas shelling.

The PML-N leader said former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah will provide legal assistance to the arrested and detained workers.

Calling her security guards “unsung heroes”, the PML-N leader said she could not initially ascertain from where the stones were being hurled, adding that she narrowly escaped a head injury. Maryam said she had received NAB summons on Sunday and alleged that the anti-corruption watchdog had leaked information to the media about the notice.

“There’s no allegation in the notice even,” she said and read out the summons in front of media persons. “The reason to call me on this vague notice was to harm me,” she reiterated. She said the police hurled stones at her bulletproof vehicle, which damaged the windscreen. “Had it not been a bullet-proof car, I would have been hit I the head.”

She condemned the government for arresting Jang/Geo Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. She said that the government was trying to suppress the voice of the media.

Referring indirectly to Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, Maryam said: "A minister said he would speak to Imran Khan about releasing Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. Did Imran Khan arrest Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman or the NAB?” she asked.

Referring to the All Parties Conference, she said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had instructed the party leadership to follow and cooperate with other opposition parties for a united front. "If Maulana Sahib has any reservations, the PML-N will address them.”

Meanwhile, replying to questions during briefing of the federal cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz asserted that the Sharifs, who had looted the national exchequer and destroyed the state institutions, would be held accountable for all this and they would not go scot-free. The minister said the culture of looting and plundering the country to build personal assets here and abroad would have to be defeated.“Today whether it is question of price hike, flooding in Lahore or Karachi, these people are responsible, who also rendered Pakistan economically bankrupt and damaged it on diplomatic front also,” he alleged, while blaming the past governments for the country’s problems.

He pointed out that today, they were again getting together to save themselves from the NAB clutches and they tried to have an NRO under the garb of proposing amendment in its law by twisting the definition of corruption to their advantage.

The minister came hard on the PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz for staging a ‘drama’ and holding a news conference instead of replying to NAB questions regarding her 1,100-kanal land; and the next day, Shahbaz Sharif group would do so and then another group. He said the PML-N staged a tremendous drama to divert attention from the real issue. “She is the same person, who once said that she does not own property in Pakistan what to talk of having in England,” Shibli remarked.

Unlike these rulers, he noted, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s every policy had its focus on the poor and weak segments of the society. He also added that the prime minister had directed the CDA to bring on ground its plans and also provide substitute means of livelihood to kiosk-holders.

Shibli again said that fortunately it was for the first time that the prime minister had no personal business and neither believed in hereditary politics nor had any plan to bring his sons or daughter in politics.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to PM on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill lashed out at Maryam Nawaz and said that she kept continuing the same dirty politics like that of her father. He alleged that the PML-N had repeated its "history of attacking the Supreme Court", adding that constitutional institutions and law enforcement agencies are not safe from the PML-N's “hooligans”.

He said action should be taken against all those nominated, arrested, and others involved, as it is the responsibility of the government to do so. Meanwhile, in a message, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the incident outside NAB office.

“Condemned the unnecessary use of force, teargas and stone pelting on Maryam Nawaz Sharif and her party workers by police in Lahore," he said. Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman accused the government of “pushing the opposition against the wall” through NAB.

While condemning the incident outside the NAB office, he said that his party condemn both the anti-state attitude as well as NAB. He said now NAB is saying that they only called Maryam Nawaz alone, but that’s a lame excuse because workers of PML-N had to assemble there.

Awami National Party (ANP) leader Asfand Yar Wali also condemned the police shelling and stone hurling. He alleged that NAB-Niazi nexus has destroyed the country.

Lately, Punjab Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Minister Raja Basharat addressed a press conference to condemned the stoning of the NAB office and police allegedly by PML-N workers and said those who had committed theft would have to be held accountable.

Flanked by Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, he told media persons that the PML-N had reminded the people of the attack on the Supreme Court and once again exposed its real face. He said stoning the NAB office was a shameful act which reflected the fascist thinking of the PML-N.

He said the PML-N had the illusion that it would be able to pressure the government or constitutional institutions.

The law minister said Maryam Nawaz was blaming the NAB or the police even though the entire media had witnessed that the security vehicles of PML (N) were loaded with stones which were distributed among the workers. He said that some of the vehicles had fake number plates and their owners and users would also be prosecuted. He said that it was unfortunate that a woman on a bail had violated the law by taking undue advantage of the bail facility which proved that the PML-N could go to any extent to cover up its corruption and crimes.

Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan said that for the first time in 20 years since the establishment of the NAB, the windowpanes of the building of anti-graft watchdog had been broken and that Maryam had carried forward her family's tradition of "launching attacks" on LEAs.

Maryam's move is the outcome of the internal party politics, he said, adding “Neither will I play, nor will I let anyone play, this is what Maryam had in mind when she came [to appear before the NAB]." The minister claimed that this act was a "suicide attack" on Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz's politics, and she had "ended the politics of the PML-N".

Chohan claimed that nearly Rs1 million were distributed among people at Jati Umra. "Every worker who pelted stones was awarded Rs25,000, those who threw stones at Maryam's car were given Rs 100,000 in advance," he said, adding that all of this was done on Pervez Rashid's advice. "It took them eight days to come up with this plan as none of their workers --- except for 30, 40 in numbers --- were ready to partake in the rally on Tuesday," he said.

"Maryam's negative personality, approach, school of thought has led to the decline of the Sharif family's politics, business, government and respect," he said. Meanwhile, the NAB’s Lahore office has issued a press release stating that the bureau had summoned PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz to hear her stance on a land investigation against her.

It said Maryam instead of appearing before the NAB had conducted an organized hooliganism through her workers who pelted stones at the NAB building and law-enforcement personnel. It stated that the NAB being a constitutional and national institution had been treated like this for the first time in 20 years since its inception.

It announced that proceedings against Maryam had been postponed. The NAB condemned the PML-N workers for interfering in legal matters in an 'organised' way.

Under such circumstances, there was no option but to postpone the hearing of Maryam Nawaz. The bureau announced it would initiate criminal proceedings by registering FIRs against PML-N workers and leaders for interfering in state affairs.