ISLAMABAD: Deposed prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif Thursday said that he has many ‘secrets’ up his sleeve regarding the 2014 sit-in by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in Islamabad which he would reveal at an ‘appropriate time’.
“There are a lot of hidden facts pertaining to the protest sit-in … and will soon be revealed before the public,” the ousted premier told media outside an accountability court in Islamabad. ‘Khalaai Makhlooq’ [aliens] is working to install a parliament of their own choice. But, they are no more as effective [as they used to be],” he said. “The present times are not an era of the Mughal kingdom, when all power wrested in one person,” he asserted, while questioning where the writ of the parliament and government had gone.
The ousted prime minister said that a state stands on three pillars. “However, in Pakistan a single pillar has taken control of the entire state. Democracy and press is being strangled by unknown forces,” he said. “Despite everything, my party passed the law in the parliament to get me elected as its president but the law was struck down to remove me,” Nawaz said. “Was it legal to remove me from party presidency?” he asked, and hastened to add that all such efforts would not yield the desired results as people are backing the PML-N.
He said that the PML-N is not competing with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), but with other ‘invisible forces’. Referring to PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s backtracking from his reported statement against Nawaz wherein he had reportedly said that the deposed prime minister had ‘duped’ him into making scathing remarks against the military establishment, the PML-N supremo wondered on whose orders news channels aired the ‘breaking news’ if Zardari had not made those remarks.
The three-time prime minister also lambasted the country’s top anti-graft body. “National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is claiming that its sun is shining all over the country. But the people of Sindh seem to be the exception,” he added.
On May 2, NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal had strongly reacted to remarks made against the watchdog by Shehbaz Sharif, who had alleged it of having double standards.
While addressing a ceremony in Lahore, Shehbaz had criticised the accountability body for focusing its ‘eagle eyes’ on Punjab only and warned that the NAB’s double standards were unacceptable. “The sun of National Accountability Bureau is shining over Punjab only,” he was quoted as saying, and had challenged his opponents to prove even an iota of corruption against him. Reacting to the statement, the NAB chief, chairing the executive board meeting of the bureau in Islamabad, had said, “There is no doubt that the NAB’s sun is not only shining over Punjab but across Pakistan.” Nawaz said attempts were being made to curb freedom of press. “We have always raised voice for freedom of speech and will continue to do so.” Speaking about the recently inaugurated New Islamabad International Airport, Nawaz said that people coming from abroad are happy to see the beautiful infrastructure of the new facility. Maryam Nawaz said that they will defeat ‘invisible forces’ forever in the upcoming general elections. “Reality cannot be denied by closing eyes like a pigeon,” she said, while talking to media outside the accountability court.
Earlier, Nawaz Sharif, along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz, appeared before the accountability court regarding hearing of the corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Published in Daily Times, May 4th 2018.
