Staff Reporter
Lahore
Incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday threw his weight behind the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F’s ‘Azadi March’ against the government, set to begin on October 31, saying that he “fully supported” it.
“Our viewpoint is the same as Maulana’s [Fazlur Rehman’s] viewpoint, “ said Nawaz while speaking to reporters at a Lahore accountability court. He was accompanied by his son-in-law, Capt (Retd) Mohammad Safdar.
A day earlier, Capt Safdar had disclosed that the party supremo’s message to the workers was “they must participate” in Maulana Fazl’s protest. “Those who love the country will join the march,” he had quoted Nawaz on Friday recalled that Fazlur Rehman had called for resignations and protest after the 2018 general elections, in which the PTI came to power. “We had convinced him not to take that course but I feel [now] that his argument was solid.”
Not paying heed to Maulana’s call for the march would be a mistake, he added.
Nawaz said that he has already written a letter to his brother Shahbaz Sharif in this regard, detailing the future course of action of the party, and expressed hope that the PML-N president would brief the media on it.
The National Accountability Bureau on Friday obtained 14-day physical remand of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in connection with the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. The court ordered the accountability bureau to present Nawaz on October 25.
Nawaz Sharif had been arrested earlier in the day by NAB from Kot Lakhpat jail and presented before an accountability court in Lahore. Members of the Sharif family are accused of being involved in money laundering under the garb of sale/purchase of Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd shares.
NAB has accused Nawaz of being a direct beneficiary of CSM and his daughter, Maryam — who was arrested in connection with the case in August along with her cousin Yousuf Abbas — of holding over 12 million shares in the sugar mills.
A source had earlier revealed that in January 2018, the then PML-N government’s financial monitoring unit had reported to NAB a large suspicious transaction involving billions of rupees in Chaudhry Sugar Mills.
The CSM reference is the latest in a series of court cases involving the former prime minister.
The saga began with his ouster from office in 2017 through the Panama Papers verdict to his convictions in two subsequent corruption references involving the Al Azizia Steel Mills and the Avenfield Apartments.
