While addressing a virtual meeting, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the Central Executive Committee of his PML-N party of being informed that “someone else” was running Parliament, in lieu of its members.

“People tell me that someone else is running the parliament. Other people come and give directions about the day’s agenda and voting on bills etc,” Dawn news quoted the former leader as saying on Wednesday.

Sharif’s remarks echoed a sentiment expressed earlier by his daughter and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who had said that political decisions should be made in Parliament, not at the General Headquarters.

While further commenting on the current political situation in Pakistan during the virtual meeting, Sharif said: “We have broken free of the colonisers only to be enslaved by our own. Today, we are not free citizens.”

In a separate statement, he also condemned the arrest of his brother and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail plea in a money laundering case.

“We are proud that our party workers are facing the current situation with courage. There is no example in history of the treatment meted out to our children,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.