PTI urges PM to rid statements of inconsistencies

Qureshi claims Nisar’s reaction to Quetta carnage inquiry report amounts to contempt of court

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to explain his contradictory statements in parliament and the Supreme Court to clarify the matters of money trail regarding his family businesses and property abroad.

“The prime minister must come to the National Assembly and personally clarify which of his contradictory statements about the money trail is correct,” PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said after a meeting of his party’s parliamentary committee at Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence.



The meeting, chaired by the PTI chairman, was attended by the party’s MNAs and senators. A senior PTI leader, who attended the meeting, said the participants decided that the party would vigorously pursue this course in the National Assembly by next week.

The meeting, it is learnt, also discussed all available parliamentary tools and procedures to make Sharif accountable after PTI’s privilege motion was rejected by NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq last week.

“If the prime minister’s statement in parliament is true, he must withdraw the letter of the Qatari prince as evidence from the apex court, as the prime minister’s statement in the NA did not mention it,” Qureshi said.



He said he had contacted leaders of other opposition parties in the National Assembly and the Senate and would also contact the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Awami Muslim League leaders on Monday before the fourth sitting of 37th session of the National Assembly to devise a unanimous strategy.

PTI demands resignation of Nisar

On Sunday, the PTI also reiterated its demand that the federal interior minister tender his resignation in light of the judicial commission’s report on the Quetta carnage.

Qureshi said the apex court should take notice of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s remarks about the judicial commission’s findings.

“We [PTI] think that Chaudhry Nisar’s observations on the report, compiled by a serving judge of the Supreme Court, clearly constitute contempt of the honourable court,” he said.

Initially, Qureshi alleged, the government had tried to restrain Justice Faez Isa from making his report public but when it failed to do so, it [PML-N] began criticising the commission.



According to him, Chaudhry Nisar’s remarks reflected the fact that the government would not implement the report’s findings.

He pointed out that it was impossible for the head of a banned outfit to hold a meeting with the interior minister without any prior invitation.

“On that day when hundreds of activists of banned outfits gathered in Islamabad, the state was busy torturing and arresting the participants of PTI’s youth convention, contending that the PTI had not obtained the ministry’s approval,” Qureshi said.

He also demanded of the home minister and chief minister of Balochistan to tender their resignations.

He also questioned the government intentions regarding improving the Pakistan Penal Code and criminal justice system it had pledged while adopting the 21st Constitutional Amendment, which will expire on January 7 next year at the end of its two-year timeframe.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2016.