PM not secure enough in office: Shah

The opposition leader in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, said on Saturday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “is not secure enough in his office” at the moment to exercise his powers.

Speaking in Gharidah Farooqi’s show on Express News, Shah, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party, said the Panama Papers controversy was not ‘made in Pakistan’, and called on Premier Nawaz to explain his position before parliament.



“The prime minister cannot stop the opposition from speaking out on this issue,” Shah said. Although Nawaz has rejected the terms of reference (ToRs) proposed by the opposition for investigating the Panama leaks, he “cannot hide from the facts”, he said.

“Nawaz appeared before the media himself first to explain the allegations levelled against his family [following the leaks],” Shah  pointed out.

He added that while the government may have ‘power and authority’, the opposition had a voice which could reach the ear of the masses.



“The prime minister’s assurance that he and his family will appear before the commission [probing the Sharif family’s offshore holdings] will not satisfy the people.” Shah said the opposition would not fight the PML-N government with ‘guns or rocks’ if the latter chose confrontation. “But we will raise our voice. No one can stop us from that.”

He urged the premier not to take decisions in haste.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2016.