Broadcast proceedings live: Nawaz

No delays acceptable in date for of general elections

ISLAMABAD : Alongside the latest demand of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to broadcast accountability court proceedings live, the ex-premier has warned that any ‘doctrine of necessity’ would not be accepted as a reason to delay the upcoming general elections.

Ousted PM said that all the parties should play their role for avoiding any such situation, adding that they should also ensure that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is not used as it was by former military dictator General (retd) Pervez Musharraf did, to pressurise potential candidates in 2002.

He was sharing his views with reporters inside the accountability court before the start of proceedings on NAB’s reference pertaining to the Avenfield Apartments.

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N ) Quaid said that the country did not get freedom from the British for martial laws and it should not be trapped in martial laws. “There is no room to delay the general elections, it will not be accepted,” warned Nawaz.

He termed it as unfortunate that politician like Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari were involved in a malicious game and stressed the need for a law to punish those who get involved in selling and buying the loyalties of politicians.

A politician should have principles and an ideology, he said, as he evoked that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan had previously termed Zardari a disease and pledged to never shake hands with him. “Ask him, did PTI not vote for the [PPP] arrow symbol in the Senate elections,” he said.

“I do not know the internal workings, but the antics of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari are shameful,” said Sharif. In his talk, Sharif said that a dubious game was being played in the country to which seasoned politicians were privy. He said that the recent developments in Balochistan were suspicious.

Terming the recently-elected Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani as a dubious person, Nawaz said that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi should take notice of such activities.

Meanwhile, Sharif and Maryam have demanded that trial proceedings against them to be broadcast live. Sharif, while addressing a public gathering in Faisalabad, said he wanted court proceedings to be shown live on television so people can see there is nothing in them.

Maryam made the same demand on Twitter.



Rejection of plea to visit ailing wife in London

 

Referring to his rejected application to visit his ailing wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, Nawaz said doctors in London wanted him to be present for consultations on vital medical decisions related to his wife’s treatment. “They did not allow me to visit my wife.”

 

When the journalists pointed out that the judge had allowed him to travel in between hearings and he had five days to do so, Nawaz said two days are spent in travelling and added that the last break fell on the weekend when the doctors did not consult.

 

 

Meeting between Abbasi, CJP

 

Speaking of the meeting between Prime Minister Abbasi and the chief justice, Nawaz maintained that he had not discussed the meet with the premier.

 

He said that the Chief Justice believes that he can single handedly run the executive and legislature where as it is a bitter truth that millions of people are waiting for disposal of their cases pending in the courts for several decades.

 

“People have been waiting decades for court decisions but the chief justice is busy in checking the quality of milk,” he said.

 

 

Load-shedding and cricket

 

Responding to another query on increased load-shedding in the country despite the government’s claims, the PML-N leader claimed that load-shedding was at a minimum during his tenure as the capacity of electricity was increased by thousands of megawatts.

 

“I will speak to the government about it to find out whether this was related to non-payment issues or something else.” Also, Sharif took credit for bringing international cricket in Pakistan. He said that when he was PM, the international cricket revived in Pakistan due to the sincere efforts of the government.

 

Faisalabad spech

Earlier, at a gathering at Sumundari, Faisalabad, Sharif reaffirmed that he would not stand down and would take his fight again injustice to a finish.

He said that he was not amongst those, who back out. He also took pledge from the people to support him in his fight. He said that since long he has been facing corruption cases but not a single paisa has ever been proved against him.

He said that he has attended 50 hearing of this case but no evidence of corruption has been presented before the courts.

He said that his ‘crime’ was that he gave Pakistan road, motorways, electricity, CPEC, and most of all made Pakistan a nuclear power.
Earlier addressing the crowd, Maryam Nawaz said that giving respect to the vote was a simple but yet a very power slogan. She said that selecting a leader was only the mandate of the people of our country, not anyone else. She said that anyone disenfranchising our people was a disrespect of our democratic system. Hamza Shehbaz also addressing the gathering and said that tons of files have been scanned for a single piece of evidence against Nawaz Sharif. He said that a person who rises to power with the blessing of God cannot be taken down with conspiracies.