PTI chairman Imran Khan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
This was stated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday while addressing a news conference at his residence in Bani Gala in connection with Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision where it dismissed a disqualification reference against him and his party’s general secretary Jehangir Khan Tareen filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislators in 2016.
“The PML-N government cannot sustain pressure in implementing its manifesto due to Nawaz Sharif’s corruption in the past, which stops him from standing up to the military,” said Imran.
“He [Nawaz] knows very well that whenever he will challenge any of the policies of the Pakistan military it [military] will take him to task for his corruption cases and money laundering,” Imran said while answering a question regarding the proposed formation of a parliamentary commission to investigate former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani’s recent claims.
Once again, Imran demanded of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to resign as he had lost the moral authority to continue the office of speaker due to the bias he showed by referring the said reference against him to the ECP and rejecting a similar one against his party’s chief Nawaz.
Imran was of the view that Memogate, DawnLeaks, and Haqqani’s recent claims had one common connection. “In all these episodes, the civilian government has been found complaining against Pakistan’s military for not toeing the civilian leadership’s line on issues related to curbing terrorism and friendly relations with India,” he said.
If that’s the situation then the government should say it publicly instead of complaining about the army before the US or India, he said and added that there was hypocrisy on behalf of civilians as they publicly claim that they are on the same page but in fact are poles apart.
“Say it publicly. Why … don’t you have the courage?” Imran questioned.
“Civilians do not portray the true picture before Pakistanis as they cannot challenge the military because it [military] has proof of their wrongdoings and it will apprehend them in corruption cases and Nawaz knows it well.”
On the issues of militancy and relations with neighbouring countries, he said the Nawaz government could not sustain pressure of the military and that practice was hurting Pakistan.
He also quoted an example of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “When there were differences between the military and the civilian leadership in Turkey, Erdogan directly consulted the people of Turkey instead of the United States or India to complain about the country’s army. Erdogan won a fresh mandate from the public and implemented his manifesto without fear,” he said.
To another question, Imran said PTI was fully prepared for a snap election if the government announced the same. “The situation is different from the 2013 general elections. We are ready for any situation,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2017.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ