PML-N advised not to poke the bear

Former opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah has advised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against seeking action against former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and to avoid such confrontations.

The remarks from the senior PPP leader came after PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif recently held the two retired officials responsible for his 2017 ouster and the country’s ongoing crises.

“(Former) chief justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa were tools [of the former army chief and his spy chief]. Their crime is bigger than a murder offence. Giving them pardon will be an injustice to the nation. They don’t deserve pardon,” Nawaz said, vowing to hold them accountable.

“These ‘characters’ who unleashed economic misery on the people of Pakistan will have to face accountability,” he said while delivering an address via a video link from London earlier this month.

Likewise, former interior minister Rana Sanaullah declared former army bigwigs Bajwa and Faiz “national criminals” earlier this week, demanding action against them.

“The way the PML-N brought Gen Pervez Musharraf to justice, it will do the same to [both men],” PML-N’s Sanaullah claimed.

The former interior minister sought “strict accountability” of former generals and judges, calling it a policy statement on behalf of the party.

In an interview to a private news channel, Khursheed was asked about Nawaz’s statement, to which he said the materialisation of the PML-N’s plan of going after the two former military leaders seemed “very difficult”.

“Did anyone touch the man who was sentenced under Article 6 of the Constitution? He was later hospitalised, and subsequently transferred to Dubai,” Khursheed remarked, referring to late military dictator Musharraf.

“Let’s refrain from engaging in such conflicts,” he advised the PML-N, noting that “politicians often find themselves entangled in such situations”.

He stressed the need to direct attention towards guaranteeing fair elections, managing increasing inflation, adhering to the Charter of Democracy and establishing good governance traditions.

He also said it seemed the “actual prime minister” was the Establishment Division’s secretary, not caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.

“The one who runs the Establishment Division, he is the prime minister.”