LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) workers and police clashed outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office Tuesday, ahead of party leader Maryam Nawaz’s visit to the anti-graft body’s office.
After a deadlock for over an hour where the PML-N leader refused to leave before NAB recorded her statement, Maryam turned back shortly after the Bureau announced via a press release that today’s proceedings had been delayed.
To show solidarity, PML-N workers in the form of a procession had accompanied the PML-N leader as she left for the Bureau’s office in Thokar Niaz Baig from Jati Umra.
However, NAB officials told her to head back as the situation deteriorated outside the Bureau’s office when party workers and police clashed. In a video that she posted on Twitter, Maryam alleged that police pelted stones at her car which cracked her bulletproof vehicle’s windshield.
In a tweet, the PML-N leader accused police of firing tear gas shells and baton-charging party workers.
In another video she posted on Twitter showing the cracked windshield of her car, the PML-N leader said,”Pelting stones at my car, police have broken its windshield. This is a bulletproof car and police are pelting stones and shelling [PML-N workers] in front of NAB’s office to instigate workers,” she said.
The clash ensued when police tried to stop PML-N workers who were trying to remove barricades outside NAB’s Lahore office. NAB officials conveyed to Maryam that it was not possible to record her statement today due to the deteriorating situation outside the Bureau’s office.
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif criticised police for allegedly assaulting the party’s workers, stating that it was a ‘shameful’ incident.
In a press release, NAB Lahore said that it had summoned the PML-N vice president to hear her stance on the case registered against her. However, the Bureau alleged that PML-N workers pelted stones and were involved in ‘hooliganism’ at the time of her appearance.
NAB said that it had been treated like this for the first time in the 20 years since the Bureau has been created, stating that its building’s windows had been broken and staffers injured.
It announced that proceedings against Maryam had been postponed and it condemned PML-N workers for interfering in legal matters in an ‘organised’ way.
The Bureau said that it will register FIRs against PML-N representatives and leaders for interfering in the legal process.
As many as two dozen PML-N workers were arrested by police after the PML-N workers dispersed.
‘I am standing outside NAB office, will not go back’, Maryam spoke to party workers shortly after the clash to say that she had been summoned from her home so that she could be harmed. “I am standing here, if I have been called, then listen to me as well,” she said.
The PML-N leader said that she had arrived outside the Bureau’s office to “answer lies” and will not head back home.
However, the doors of the NAB office remain closed and no official of the Bureau has responded to Maryam’s statement.
At first, Maryam’s car could be seen heading towards Jati Umra after the message had been conveyed from NAB that proceedings had been postponed. However, her car then stopped outside the NAB office as PML-N workers and party leaders reconvened around her vehicle.
Earlier, while she was on her way to the NAB office, party workers showered flowers on Maryam’s car and chanted slogans in favour of the PML-N leader.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the clash and ordered the chief secretary Punjab and IG Punjab Police to submit a report on the matter.
“No one can be allowed to take the law into their hands,” said the chief minister. “Action should be taken against those who violated the law,” he added.
