ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Narcotics Control Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday said it was the past regime of PTI that started amending National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws for political engineering and victimization of opponents.

“It is clarified that all amendments in the NAB laws have not been initiated during the tenures of PML-N and PPP. These (NAB law amendments) had been carried out during the tenure of Imran Khan Niazi with certain purpose and background,” he said while responding to PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain’s objections over the recent amendments in NAB laws at a news conference here.

He said the height of political victimization and the NAB-Niazi nexus could be gauged from the fact that all opposition members of the first two rows in the National Assembly were behind the bar, due to the accountability laws which he called ’black laws.“

He said it was unfortunate that Shehbaz Sharif was arrested by the NAB officials when he had already passed six-month imprisonment in a bogus case, while Maryam Nawaz Sharif was arrested in front of her father Nawaz Sharif. All the unlawful things were done by the NAB just because Imran Niazi wanted to see happening this, he added.

The SAPM said the PPP and PML-N did not bring amendments to the NAB law during their past tenure (2008-2013 & 2013-2018) because they never wanted to use it as a tool against political opponents.

It was the past regime of PTI that felt the need of amending the NAB law for the arm-twisting of opposition leaders, he added.

Now, he said, the incumbent coalition government had just rectified the NAB laws for the smooth working of routine official matters as government officials and contractors were avoiding taking any initiative, in the presence of black laws.

Tarar made it clear that the recent amendments in the NAB laws were not meant to benefit any members of the cabinet or partners of the coalition government. He said the courts had cleared all the leadership of PML-N and PPP under old NAB laws.

He was of the view that the amendments in the NAB laws had benefited the leadership of the PTI including Imran Khan.

He alleged that Farah Gogi had been given an ‘NRO’ by the Punjab government in all the corruption cases. He questioned why five Director Generals of Anti-corruption had been changed in a short time. “The DGs of Anti-Corruption had been changed just to give NRO to Farah Gogi,” he said.

Farah Gogi did all the corruption in line with the direction of Imran Khan’s family and she was facilitated by the PTI leadership to fly abroad, he maintained.

To a question, he said it was under consideration to issue to Red Warrant for the repatriation of Farah Gogi.