PML-N leader mulls political support to ‘save democracy’

Ahsan Iqbal says country's economy is passing through history's worst phase

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) former federal minister Ahsan Iqbal has urged all the political parties to sit together and sign a new charter of democracy to put the country on the right track.

He expressed these views while addressing a seminar held at the Lahore High Court (LHC) under the banner of "The fate of Pakistan's prime ministers".

He said the charter of democracy worked whenever it was signed, adding the need of the hour was to sign it again for the sake of the country's progress.

“The country is facing gigantic problems. The country's economy is passing through its history's worst phase,” the PML-N central leader said.

Iqbal said 2020 would be the year of elections in the country. “The PTI regime is shifting the blame of their massive failures on national institutions. They want to entangle the armed forces of Pakistan into matters of national economy so that they could dodge being held responsible for the mess they have created,” he added.

“We need to work on the rule of law. The country cannot be put on the right track until there is rule of law.” He also stressed the need for strengthening the federation which according to him had weakened in PTI regime.

The PML-N leader said the enemies were hatching conspiracies against Pakistan while the PTI government was weakening it through its wrong policies. “We should give our armed forces time to ponder over to foil every move of the enemies but the PTI government has engaged the chief of army staff on a topic how to make perfect the economy and the meetings are being held with traders in this regard.

He said the PTI government was not only earning a bad name for it owing to its flawed policies but also tarnishing the image of military forces add g whenever we ask the PTI about the blunder they reply them saying PTI and Army are on one page.

“The government also brought bad name to Anti-Narcotics Force by implicating Rana Sanaullah in the forged drug smuggling case.”

He also urged the lawyers to protest strongly against the government's move in which the Supreme Court judge's retirement age is being planned to increase from 65 to 68.

Later, PML-N's lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar conveyed the message of Nawaz Sharif to the lawyers that “he (Nawaz) is ready to fight till the last breath against the prevailing system under which the elected governments are sent back to home”.

The lawyers also cautioned the government claiming they would take to the streets if the retirement age of judges was increased.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2019.