The PTI seems to be either ignorant of its own political leaders who have had faced similar charges in the past
SAHIWAL: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has launched a campaign as a counteraction to the ousted PM Nawaz Sharif’s rally to Lahore via GT Road in a several day long trip. The PTI seeks to create awareness regarding the involvement of the former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) head in corruption cases as a reason for his disqualification by the Supreme Court. Simultaneously, the PTI calls it a beginning towards a corruption-free Pakistan implying that not just the prime minister, other political parties and groups must be investigated and held accountable against their wrongdoings.
With its awareness campaign, the PTI seems to be either unaware or ignorant of its own political leaders who have had faced similar charges in the past from their political opponents and the judiciary. It wasn’t long ago when the PTI leader Dr Firdous Aashiq Awan faced National Accountability Bureau’s investigations for illegal appointment in the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan and for illegally keeping government buses for her personal use. Furthermore, the then minister of information turned out to be the richest member of parliament owning gold and ornaments worth millions when she declared her assets before the Election Commission of Pakistan. Similarly, other PTI leaders, including Dr Babar Awan and Ghulam Mustafa Khar, were also investigated for fraud.
Khar in a recent press conference demanded the ‘cleansing’ of the whole system which could also possibly lead to a massive cleanup from his own party. It’s about time that PTI must expand its political oppositional strategy over all other political parties and not just the ruling PML-N. The extent to which the PTI has played a hostile opposition to the PML-N has gotten to the level of one considering it as personal animosity between the two leaders.
Malik Aman
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2017.
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