'Does Nawaz Sharif deserve a medal for maligning state institutions?'

Sedition case against PML-N supreme leader should be discussed from all its aspects, says PM's aide

Prime Minister’s aide on political communication Shahbaz Gill has emphasised that a matter of sedition case against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif should be discussed from all its aspects.

In a video statement posted on his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, Gill regretted that the main aspects of the issue have not been discussed in the media.

Referring to the Nawaz’s statements targeting state institutions, he said the similar cases were registered against the members of MQM after its founder Altaf Hussain raised anti-Pakistan slogans during his address to the party workers in 2016.

“The matter that whether the FIR should have been registered or not will be decided by court but why no discussion is being held that why did a citizen decides to register a [sedition] case against Nawaz,” he emphatically asked in a video.

“Should Nawaz be given an award over his speeches? Why no one is debating the issue that why did Nawaz make anti-state speeches. Why did he [Nawaz] put many of his ‘patriotic’ party members into a difficult situation,” he added.

He also maintained that Nawaz being a former three-time prime minister of Pakistan should not have delivered “anti-state speeches”.

لاہور ایف آئی آر حکومت واضح کر چکی کہ یہ حکومت کی طرف سے نہیں دی گئی۔ لیکن اس موضوع کے ہر پہلو پر بات ہونی چاہئیے۔ صرف ایک پہلو پر بات کیوں ہو رہی ہے۔ اس پہلو پر بھی بات کریں لیکن اصل مسلے پر بات کیوں نہیں ہو رہی۔ pic.twitter.com/npHZkdcgp0

— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) October 6, 2020

The PM’s aide also clarified that a person who had registered a case against Nawaz had no links with the ruling PTI.

Nawaz, in his recent speeches from London via video link, 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, accusing military and other state institutions of meddling into political affairs.

The government ministers have since accused Nawaz of promoting “India’s narrative” against Pakistan’s state institutions. Some went a step further saying that the PML-N supremo was in cohorts with Indian PM Narendra Modi.

Nawaz, who is in the British capital for treatment of his undiagnosed illness, has been declared a “proclaimed offender” after his refusal to return to Pakistan to serve out a seven-year jail-term handed down to him by a court following his conviction in a graft case.