KARACHI: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday asserted that the government has instructed the attorney general to ask the Lahore High Court (LHC) to take action against Shehbaz Sharif for submitting a “fake” undertaking ensuring the return of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to the country.
Talk of Nawaz’s return has been making the rounds of late, with the topic addressed multiple times by government officials, including the prime minister, who thinks the self-exiled PML-N leader wouldn’t come back without first striking a “secret deal”.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the minister said an affidavit was submitted by Shehbaz in a court decision to send his brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to London for medical treatment, wherein the PML-N president had guaranteed his brother’s return to Pakistan.
“The court should have taken suo moto notice of the matter and summoned Mian Shehbaz Sharif but no action has been taken by the Lahore High Court thus far,” the information minister added.
However, he said, if Lahore high court was not taking action against Shehbaz, then the government has no other choice but to become a party in the case. “We have told the attorney general to take this case up and request the high court to either bring back Nawaz or take action against Shehbaz for submitting a fake affidavit,” he added.
Nawaz had left the country in 2019 after his seven-year sentence for corruption was suspended by the Islamabad High Court for eight weeks so he could seek medical treatment abroad. He never returned and was declared a “proclaimed offender” by multiple courts and “absconder” by the government.
Talking about finance and SBP bills today, Fawad dispelled the impression that the government’s allies were “displeased” and had expressed reservations about the Finance Supplementary Bill 2021 and the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021.
He added that the finance bill had been tabled in the National Assembly and was expected to be passed by January 15 to 20. “Firstly, no one expressed any reservations,” he said, adding that the PML-Q and the MQM were on board with its approval,” he added.
Chaudhry alleged that when PML-N leader Ishaq Dar was the finance minister, the SBP deputy governor used to help him launder money. “We don’t want such institutions. We want strong institutions,” he said.
The minister said that the central bank’s autonomy would be in the country and the economy’s interest, reiterating that the government’s allies were behind it.
