Address at Aiwan-e-Iqbal: Deposed PM seeks lawyers’ support

Says PML-N’s revolution aims to get votes respected and give people right to elect and rule

LAHORE: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that the revolution the PML-N aims to bring is to change the destiny of the country, get votes respected and give people the right to elect and rule.

“The PML-N has decided to form a committee that will initiate a debate with politicians, lawyers, teachers, media-persons, business community, intellectuals and all others segments of society with an aim to change the destiny of our country,” said the deposed PM while addressing the PML-N’s Pakistan Lawyers Convention at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal on Friday.

He said that people should participate in this grand debate like they did in the Tehreek-e-Azadi. “This debate is not to bring me back into power, but to give people the right to elect,” said Sharif while referring to the criticism of opposition parties, who termed the proposal to amend Articles 62 and 63 as Sharif-centric.

Reminding the lawyers that usurping a public mandate had once resulted in the country’s breakup, the deposed PM said this was not the first time that a former PM tried equating his disqualification with circumstances that resulted in the fall of Dhaka.

“We need to find the cause of this disease that has corroded the country for the past 70 years,” he said, asking, “Why is mandate of the people always disregarded?” Once it had already resulted in the fall of Dhaka, he added.

He said people suggested that Sharif never got along well with others, asking if it was just a problem with him, why any other PM had never been able to complete his full term.



“We need to change this, if we are to save this country from another tragedy,” he told the lawyers present there.

Claiming that every dictator got more than eight years to rule on average whereas every PM got just two, he said that the saddest element was that even judiciary had ratified the steps taken by the dictators, allowing them to make amendments of their choice to the Constitution.

“The nexus of power between the two” had left people in the clutches of the dictators, he added.

“On the other hand, our politicians were hanged, jailed and exiled. We need to fix this and we need to get our votes respected,” he said. “I leave this decision up to you as your right to vote and elect a leader has been usurped.”

Sharif said the grand dialogue that he had talked about was determining the root cause of sickness and then finding a solution to it.

Referring to his disqualification, he said he was not upset with the effect of the decision on him, but with the decision’s effect on progress and prosperity of the country as well as on interpretation of an article of the Constitution, “which now hangs like a guillotine over every elected government’s head”.



He said the decision “affects process of law that is the identity of any civilised nation”.

Quoting a saying that justice should not only be done, but should also been seen to be done, the former PM said unfortunately in the July 28 decision, this was not the case. He said the decision would be remembered as a decision where justice was not served. “The saddest part in this is that such decisions affect the dignity and reputation of judiciary itself,” he maintained.

He said the decision was implemented immediately and he stepped down, but did not accept the decision as it was setting wrong precedents. “Such a decision cannot be agreed to,” he added.

Sharif said despite the fact that his name was not in the Panama Papers, he immediately offered to form a commission under an honourable judge soon as the issue surfaced. He said he got no answer from the court despite a passage of several weeks, then on the demand of opposition parties, the government agreed to form a commission comprising three judges, but then the TOR issue was created, he added.

To address the issue, a parliamentary committee was formed, but no flexibility was shown by political parties, he said, adding that the agenda was to bring the matter on to the roads and create a crisis-like situation in the country.

He said the Supreme Court termed the petition that was filed as frivolous and baseless, but after the announcement of a lockdown and sit-in, the petition was declared maintainable.

The purpose of all this, he said, was for the decision given on wrong ground and in a wrong manner to be withdrawn.