Daily Times

Islamabad/Lahore: PML-N vice president and daughter of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, was detained by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday.

Yousaf Abbas, a cousin of Maryam Nawaz Sharif has also been arrested by NAB.

In a press release, NAB stated that Maryam Nawaz and Yousaf Abbas had been arrested in connection with the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. The press release added that on the directives of chairman NAB a team of doctors would conduct a medical examination of Maryam Nawaz and Yousaf Abbas. Both will be presented before an accountability court on Friday for remand.

PML-N sources confirmed that Maryam was taken into custody after she was shown the arrest warrants issued for her non-appearance before the bureau.

PML-N leaders and supporters, including Marriyum Aurangzeb and Ahsan Iqbal, are protesting the development outside the National Assembly.

Before the assembly session was adjourned due to PML-N’s protest, Pakistan People Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned Maryam’s arrest in a strongly-worded speech on the floor of the house.

A resolution has also been submitted in the Punjab Assembly against Maryam’s arrest.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the arrest and slammed the government for “political vengeance”.

Bilawal added that similar cases were taken up against women during Ziaul Haq’s regime.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Wednesday said the Sharif Family had used Chaudhry Sugar Mills for money-laundering and illegal transfer of its shares.

Addressing a press conference, Shahzad Akbar said in the year 2008, the mill’s shares were transferred to Maryam Nawaz, who later transferred some seven million of them to Yousaf Abbas in 2010.