Unflinching support: PML-N leaders’ rally behind Nawaz Sharif

Saad Rafique says unfair treatment meted out to ruling party in Panama Papers case

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Hours after the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Panamagate case, the top PML-N leadership on Friday rallied behind their embattled leader Nawaz Sharif and vowed to carry his mission forward.

The PML-N leaders – Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Barrister Zafarullah and Marriyum Aurangzeb – reiterated that parliament would not be dissolved.



“The PML-N will complete its term,” they said while addressing a news conference.

Zafarullah termed the judgement ‘unprecedented’, claiming he never witnessed in his life such a verdict while Rafique claimed that Sharif, who got elected “with the support of millions of Pakistanis got disqualified for a technical error”.

However, the former minister skipped to mention the damning JIT report that categorically mentioned Sharif as a beneficial owner of offshore companies and found him guilty of living beyond his means and concealment of facts.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said Nawaz Sharif was a political reality and the heartthrob of the masses, who had elected him thrice as prime minister of Pakistan.



“Nawaz Sharif is a leader of the people in his own right who does not need the chair of the prime minister to establish his credentials in this regard.”

Marriyum said that he could neither be driven out of the hearts of the people nor stopped from serving them, adding that today was the darkest day of our history.

She said that seen in the historic backdrop, the decision of the apex court was not surprising but very regrettable.

She remarked that neither in the SC verdict nor in the report of the JIT a single case of corruption or misappropriation of public money by Nawaz Sharif during his stints in power as prime minister and chief minister of Punjab had been pointed out or identified.



Marriyum said no matter whoever was the prime minister of the country, Nawaz Sharif would remain prime minister in the hearts of the people.

Meanwhile, PML-N Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter termed Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification ‘judicial martial law’.

“We have serious reservations over the verdict,” PML-N K-P president and former cabinet member Amir Muqam told The Express Tribune.

He added that the party would file a review petition against the verdict.



“This has happened for the second time in the country as once former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was judicially murdered and now judicial martial law has removed another elected prime minister,” PML-N provincial information secretary Nasir Musazai said.

Earlier, PML-N workers held a protest demonstration outside the Peshawar press club and chanted slogans in favour of their leadership.