NAB rejects allegations Shehbaz Sharif contracted coronavirus during appearance

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has advised PML-N President and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, to undergo his coronavirus test from Shaukat Khanum Hospital or the Agha Khan Laboratory other than Chughtai Laboratories, reported The News.

NAB sources while rejecting allegations levelled by PML-N leaders that Shehbaz contracted coronavirus during his appearance before NAB’s Combined Investigation Team, said all safety protocols were adopted during the PML-N leader’s appearance.

Moreover, NAB expressed reservations over Shehbaz testing positive for COVID-19 in a single night.

Sources added that Shehbaz was due in an accountability court on Thursday and charges were to be framed against him but it could not happen. They added the whole episode was doubtful and needed an explanation.

PML-N leaders, while addressing a press conference on Thursday, had said Prime Minister Imran Khan and NAB would be held responsible if anything happened to Shehbaz after the party confirmed the former Punjab chief minister tested positive for COVID-19.

PML-N representative Ata Tarar said that despite informing NAB several times that Shehabaz was a cancer survivor and was at risk from COVID-19, he was summoned by the anti-graft body.

"This was a well thought out plan to put the lives of all these people [PML-N leaders] in danger," he said, blaming the 'NAB-Niazi nexus' for putting Sharif at risk of contracting coronavirus.

PML-N leader Azma Bokhari said Shehbaz came back to face everything. "Did Nawaz and Maryam Nawaz not return after the decision was taken [against them]," asked Bokhari.

"Did Shehbaz Sharif not return to the country? He came back to face everything," she added, saying that PM Imran's ego had still not been satisfied.

Bokhari rejected allegations that the party had not taken proper precautions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the PML-N had not held any public gathering even when it planned on pushing for protests against the government this year as it considered 2020 the "year of the election". 

Originally published in The News