Lambasting the PPP supremo over his recent demand for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said it was a sign of doomsday that Asif Ali Zardari is lecturing on honesty and morality.
“The PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari lecturing others and issuing certificates on Articles 62 and 63 on honesty is a sign of the apocalypse,” Nisar told a news conference in Taxila on Friday.
Nisar claimed that there is no difference of opinion between the judges who gave the Panamagate verdict on Thursday. “Though two judges put forth a different opinion than the rest of the five-member bench in the Panamagate case, all of them agreed to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT),” he said.
The verdict said there was not enough evidence to disqualify the premier, but the PM and his sons will still have to appear before the JIT, comprising members of various government agencies, to explain how they came to acquire their foreign assets.
“Two judges gave a different decision [than the rest] but the JIT suggestion had signatures and ownership of all of them,” the minister added. He criticised those talking against the decision and ‘hinting at launching protests against the decision’.
“Let’s leave it up to the apex court to decide on the issue as the JIT report will be submitted to it after its probe,” he said. No decision of the judiciary, the interior minister added, can be taken on the basis of the personal desires of some people.
PM ‘is not honest with nation’: Justice Khosa
Nisar reiterated that the apex court gives decisions based on evidence and not mere doubt. “The case is sub judice and the JIT has been formed to further probe into the case.
According to him, the premier had directed to not let the decision of the judiciary become controversial. The minister, however, admitted that the top court was not satisfied by the Sharif family’s money trail produced in the court.
Nisar said the report on the Dawn leaks will be released by Monday or Tuesday. “The delay in the release of Dawn leaks report was caused due to the court’s verdict [in the Panamagate case],” he said.
Separately, the ruling PML-N’s newly appointed president for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Amir Muqam, hit out at opposition parties particularly the PPP for demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying such demands are ridiculous.
Muqam, who is also the PM’s adviser, was speaking at a welcome gathering held in his honour near Peshawar-Islamabad motorway.
He said Zardari talked about transparency and accountability but the PPP led Sindh government, according to him, lacked transparency and accountability, adding that the general public had completely refused to accept the PPP in by-polls.
He said the anti-government campaign revolved around the premier’s daughter Maryam Nawaz who always remained the opposition’s main target but the court did not mention her in the verdict, adding that the ones leveling allegations against the premier must look into their own past.
The premier’s adviser also came down hard on Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq by saying he had been part of the JI and what he had come to know was that Haq had left Maududi’s philosophy in exchange for only two ministries in the K-P government.
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