LAHORE: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz on Friday lambasted that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders were being arrested before every election, which was beyond understanding.

Addressing a press conference here after the arrest of his father and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif he said that his father was accused of cancelling [Ashiana Iqbal housing scheme] contract awarded to Lateef & Sons, despite the fact that it was cancelled by Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) board of governors on the basis of its findings.

The PML-N leader elaborated that the contractor, Chaudhry Lateef, was accused of irregularities in Orange Line and other projects, adding that he had entered into plea bargain with NAB.

He said that Lateef was still absconding in a corruption case, lamenting that the contractor was still awarded contract of Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Hamza dared Prime Minister Imran Khan to go on with the arrest spree “in connivance with the NAB.”

“Niazi sahib, arrest as many people as you can in connivance with the NAB. These tactics are not new for the PML-N,” he said at the press conference.

The PML-N leader said that Shehbaz’s arrest ahead of by-election was an expression of PM Khan’s unease for his “crippled government is hanging in the air.” INP