Upping the ante: PM to blame if ‘third force’ steps in: Imran

Castigates Zardari, Maulana Fazl for protecting ‘corrupt ruler’

ISLAMABAD: The political jousting punctuated by acrid exchanges among rivals in the run-up to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s planned November 2 showdown in the federal capital intensified on Sunday.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan declared that if a ‘third force’ intervened as a result of his protest movement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif alone will be to blame.

He made the remark in an apparent response to the government’s fresh charge that the PTI chief was out to derail democracy.

Talking to reporters at his Bani Gala residence before heading to DI Khan, Khan alleged that the PML-N media cell, headed by the premier’s daughter, was responsible for leaking sensitive news to the media to defame Pakistan Army.



“To save its corruption, the N-league has indulged in a dangerous practice of maligning the armed forces for its own failures,” Khan said, adding the PTI’s protest would be against corrupt rulers, not democracy.

“Why the government has failed to name who leaked the news,” Khan questioned, and in the same breath answered himself: “Because a member of the ‘Royal family’ was involved.”

He once again threatened the government with dire consequences in case it resorted to torture and arrests of peaceful protesters.

The PTI chief also turned the focus of his tirade to former president Asif Ali Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman while addressing a workers convention in DI Khan.

Naming the two politicians, he said the duo were beneficiaries of the corrupt system; therefore, they had every reason to openly support a corrupt ruler. He said Nawaz Sharif was neither a King nor a Prime Minister, rather a criminal who plundered Pakistan and amassed his family fortune.

Jumping into the fray, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah fired a broadside at both the government and Khan.

He said the PPP would not lend its support to the PML-N for the sake of politics but only if it [government] agrees to hold serious dialogue on four demands listed by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari recently in the backdrop of the Panamagate.

He accused the PTI chief of playing a double game, saying through his ‘unwise’ politics the premier was getting further strength and would emerge as ‘political martyr’ in the end.

Shah said the ball was in Sharif’s court and the premier should present himself for accountability by appearing before the Supreme Court on November 1.

But even as the government finds itself increasingly friendless, one politician stands like bulwark in its support: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.



The Maulana said his party would not allow anyone to destabilise democracy in the name of accountability.

“It’s not a crime to protect an elected government from destabilisation,” he said after his meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore. He said there was no excuse left for the PTI to hold a sit-in after the Panama issue reached the country’s highest court.

“Khan’s protest is aimed at pressuring the superior judiciary and to get a decision of his choice,” Fazl alleged. He dubbed Khan ‘master of U-turns’.

In response to Khan’s statement, a PTI spokesperson said the Maulana’s unconditional support to the government was a result of some underhand deal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2016.