PML-N blames ex judges, generals for inflation

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) blamed on Monday some former judges of the Supreme Court and ex-military generals for the current wave of inflation and inflated electricity bills that landed on consumers’ doorsteps this July.

Apparently, in an attempt to build up momentum for PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s likely return to Pakistan from London coming October, the party’s leadership has once again started creating narrative against the judges and generals who, according to them, played a role in Sharif’s conviction and disqualification back in 2017.

Additionally, the PML-N has turned its guns on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and his former government, holding them responsible for the current crisis.

“The group of judges who had disqualified Nawaz Sharif in 2017 is responsible for the inflation as [the decision] dealt a blow to Pakistan’s economic stability and democracy,” PML-N’s former energy minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said.

“This group was supported by (former army chief) General Bajwa and (ex-DG ISI) General Faiz who imposed Imran Khan on the people of Pakistan after a long conspiracy,” Dastgir added, saying the PML-N’s track record of taking the country out of energy-related crisis was “superb”.

The PML-N leadership blames former five-member bench of Supreme Court, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, along with several others, including former chief justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar, for Sharif’s disqualification in Panama Papers case and several other decisions.

Strange as it may seem, Nawaz had previously accused Bajwa of toppling his government, pressuring the judiciary and installing the government of Imran in the 2018 elections but his younger brother, former PM Shehbaz Sharif has lauded the former army chief’s services when he bid farewell to him in November 2022.

Nawaz, while speaking via video-link from London to a gathering organised by the then united opposition at Gujranwala, had said that Bajwa had “packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country at the altar” of his wishes.

He had blamed the generals and the judges for what he said were trumped-up charges but no practical step was taken against anyone when the PML-N-led government ruled.

Though the Shehbaz-led 16-month government – which the coalition parties themselves ended prematurely this month – had come to power after removing Imran-led regime promising to end inflation, they left inflation at a soaring note.

Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that inflation was at 13.4 per cent back in April 2022. In July 2023, the statistics revealed that inflation increased to 28.3 per cent – roughly 111 per cent hike during the last 16 months.

“They (previous ruling coalition) don’t want to take responsibility of their actions or rather failure,” eminent scholar professor Dr Hassan Askari said, adding that “they came to power and took benefits as well by amending different laws but now want to shift blame on judges, generals and others”.

The professor noted that no political party was ready to take responsibility for their past actions and had been pointing finger at others.

He said political parties were busy exploiting others sentimentally because 2023 was the election year and that confessions would not lead to anything good.

“Their workers and supporters believe in the emotionally-charged statements while the opponents consider them false,” Professor Askari said, noting, “it continues. No one wants to take blame for poor governance”.

He said that situation, especially inflation, got deteriorated after Imran was removed, adding it was a bad decision to continue after knocking down the former premier in April 2022.

Meanwhile, apart from blaming the judges, generals and ex-prime minister, the PML-N chief organiser and senior vice president, Maryam Nawaz, said people will be saved from inflation and inflated electricity bills just the way Pakistan was saved from default during the last 16 months under the leadership of her father – Nawaz Sharif.

Regretting that people had to face inflation and excessive electricity bills right after the PML-N-led government handed over power to the caretaker government, Maryam said if the process of development envisioned by Nawaz had not been halted, there would not have been “tears in the eyes of the poor people today”.

The PML-N chief organiser while talking to party’s Punjab women youth wing said all the existing problems were born from the “fascism of the four-year period of project Imran,” adding that the “real elected representatives of the people will give birth to a government that would curb inflation and start the era of development and prosperity again”.

While building a narrative in favour of her father, she said Nawaz Sharif was the guarantee of Pakistan’s development and was the only one who could bottle up inflation in the same way as loadshedding, terrorism and Karachi’s lawlessness were during his previous tenure.