Nawaz Sharif vows to save ‘sinking’ country

Shehbaz throws weight behind his brother’s narrative; Nawaz, Fazl discuss options to send govt packing

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

Former premier Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said those responsible for sending him to jail had “sunk the country” and these “antics” would not be allowed to carry on.

Taking to Twitter, the supreme leader of the PML-N questioned the credibility of the accountability process through which he was convicted and jailed.

Along with his tweet, he shared a video of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who was removed from his post following a controversial speech against state institutions. The video also showed former accountability judge Arshad Malik confessing to convicting Sharif under duress. The judge was later sacked by an administrative committee of the Lahore High Court.

“This is the reality of the accountability through which a three-time elected prime minister was victimised, sentenced and declared an absconder,” wrote the ousted premier, who is currently in London since last year undergoing treatment for an undiagnosed illness.

Sharif also spoke with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the phone and discussed options to send the PTI-led government packing.

Sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune that the two opposition leaders exchanged views on appointing the head of newly-formed Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance of opposition parties.

They also approved the formation of committee to decide the matter of opposition lawmakers resigning from the assemblies.

Later in the day, the JUI-F chief held a consultative meeting of his party to review the anti-government action plan chalked out by the opposition parties at a recent all parties conference.

The participants of the meeting discussed Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid’s recent statements against the opposition and also expressed their concerns over the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) action against JUI-F members.

Sharif, in his speech at the APC, declared that the opposition was up not against Prime Minister Imran Khan but against those who had brought him into power in the 2018 elections.

The Sharif family patriarch, who has recently been declared a proclaimed offender by a court, reiterated his claim that the mandate of the people was stolen in the last general elections.

In 2018, an accountability court had sentenced the three-time premier to seven-year rigorous imprisonment after it found him guilty in the Al-Azizia reference, one of the three graft cases filed by NAB in line with the apex court order.

Prior to his sentence, the Supreme Court had disqualified him in Panama Papers case and ordered NAB to file corruption references against him.

Shehbaz throws weight behind elder brother

Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has defended his elder brother, party founder Nawaz Sharif, for giving a fiery speech during the all parties conference (APC) on September 20, saying it was not confrontational at all and was in line with the Constitution and laws of Pakistan.

“The PML-N founder spoke like an experienced, mature and responsible politician, and the decisions of the APC will be implemented in letter and spirit without exception,” the National Assembly opposition leader said while addressing a meeting with TV anchors.

The PML-N president vowed that the “incompetent and corrupt” government would not be given more time to “destroy the country beyond repair”.

On the NAB references against him, Shehbaz shared with journalists documentary proof of his innocence in the “alleged allegations” for which he believed he would be entrapped once again.

Shehbaz said that his politics of reconciliation had always been in the best interest of the country, which never reaped him any personal benefit.

“My family and I are being subjected to fake cases, political victimisation, harassment and imprisonment,” the PML-N president said.

He said that he did not commit a single penny worth of corruption in any of the projects named in the references against him nor did he take any decision to benefit himself or his family.

On the contrary, he said, his decisions as the Punjab chief minister caused hundreds of millions of rupees losses to his family's business.

Shehbaz claimed that he had always put national and public interest first and completed projects in “world record time”, which saved the nation billions of rupees. “My conscience is clear and hands clean because I know I saved Pakistan Rs1 trillion.”

He claimed that Imran “Niazi has not been able to prove a single allegation against me and all this fiasco is because he is politically insecure about the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and local body elections”.

He said Imran's political victimisation in the name of accountability has brought Pakistan international shame. He reiterated that the Chinese and British governments rebutted Imran, chided his accusations and testified to his (Shehbaz's) honesty and transparency.

“This failed government has no other choice but to create an atmosphere of confrontation to survive.”

He said that the true face of NAB-Niazi alliance has been exposed by the courts and international rights bodies. In addition to that, he said, after the Supreme Court remarks, “NAB's existence is void”.

Shehbaz stressed that the decision regarding G-B's future must be taken after obtaining the approval of the people. He warned against taking any decision which would weaken Pakistan's stance on Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.