Ahsan Iqbal accuses PTI govt of devising ‘weak’ policies

PML-N leader says PTI has made local bodies system a political issue

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal has said the local government representatives elected for a five-year term have been removed due to political vendetta.

Addressing a press conference after chairing a meeting of the PML-N women wing at the party secretariat in Lahore on Saturday, Iqbal said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has made the local bodies system a political issue and made it dysfunctional even though it was established for five years.

“It seems there are different laws for PML-N and other. I appeal to the Supreme Court to restore the local bodies’ representatives so that Punjab gets back on the path of progress and prosperity.”

He said 52 per cent of the female population of Pakistan is deprived of local bodies’ institutions. He said such institutions work in localities and perform other tasks and ending them would be damaging for the country and Punjab and reverse the wheels of provincial progress.

He appealed to the courts to restore the local bodies.

He said the PML-N would approach the courts if the government resorted to any unconstitutional steps. “If [PML-N supreme leader] Nawaz Sharif’s appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 18, then PML-N would adopt legal ways,” he added.

Apparently referring to the Supreme Court’s Friday decision with regard to video scandal surrounding an accountability court judge, Iqbal said if a judge is found guilty of misconduct then it is the responsibility of the higher judiciary to overrule his decision.

He pointed out that the metro bus service was not being completed for the last four years, while the rights of Balochistan had also been usurped.

Terming the public protest as the last option, Iqbal said the PML-N and other opposition parties are preparing a joint strategy for a march towards Islamabad but the day and time for this march are yet to be decided.

Speaking with reference to a no-confidence vote in the Senate, the PML-N leader claimed horse-trading took place during the no-confidence motion.

“The government has lost the Kashmir issue in the meeting with the US President Trump. No Indian leader had had the courage to take such step in the last 72 years,” he said in a reference to New Delhi’s August 5 move to strip Kashmir of its special status.

Iqbal said Pakistan today is at a disadvantageous position on the international front and the government has weakened the country to the extent that no one is ready to receive a call of our leadership.

The PML-N leader claimed that the ‘selected’ premier did not act on the foreign ministry reports with regard to Indian plans about Kashmir.  Calling the government ‘incompetent’, Iqbal declared that the PTI government wants to bulldoze everything.