Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday claimed that the inclusion of PM Nawaz and himself in a 35-page report on 150 mega scams by the National Accountability Bureau was “erroneous and unjust”.
“We (Nawaz and I) are not loan defaulters,” said Shahbaz while addressing a news conference in Lahore, adding that they had never asked any bank to waive off their loans .
“We never asked any bank – private or public to waive our loans off,” Shahbaz added.
The chief minister in turn blamed former President Pervez Musharraf for levelling the Ittefaq Foundry case against him and his brother, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, labelling it as a case of ‘political victimisation’.
“Ittefaq Foundry case was made by Musharraf to politically victimise us,” he said, adding that they were “forced to live in exile” as a result.
Shahbaz stressed that the brothers’ assets were always in the banks adding that they returned all the money that they borrowed.
“Our assets were in the banks. We have returned each and every penny to them,” he said.
The chief minister told reporters that the Sharif brothers have paid Rs5.2 billion in debts and they never wrote to banks asking to waive their loans off.
“It was Musharraf who wrote to banks to waive off loans for his blue-eyed people,” Shahbaz said.
Chaudhry Shujaat to scam allegations
President of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat later on Wednesday responded to the allegations made by NAB against him.
Shujaat said that he should be the first person to be tried for the allegations. “I am not afraid of the truth,” he said.
