Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif Saturday called for mid-term polls in the country, claiming that it is the only way to fix the faltering economy.
“The solution to the disease the economy has been afflicted with is fresh elections,” Shehbaz said, noting that mid-term elections are not unusual in democracies. “It’s nothing new,” he said while talking to reporters in his chambers at the Parliament House. He also backtracked from his position on the ‘charter of economy’ after Maryam Nawaz’s blistering criticism last week of his proposal for the opposition and government to arrive at a common ground. “I am bound to obey Nawaz Sharif,” he said. Lawmakers from the PML-N and other opposition parties will resign from the parliamentary committee formed to probe rigging in the 2018 general elections, Shehbaz Sharif announced. “The rigging committee has not convened for four months,” he complained as he announced the decision. “We have [therefore] decided to resign from it,” he added.
Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shehbaz said the word ‘selected’ has become a taunt for him that will continue till the end of the world. “Prime Minister Niazi made such a huge blunder that ‘selected’ has become a taunt for him … and it will continue till the day the world ends,” Shehbaz said. “The House had become a fish market during the budget session and the first four days were wasted and members of the government kept adding fuel to the fire,” he said. The society has started to lose patience, the opposition leader noted, adding that they have had disagreements in the past but this kind of atmosphere was never there.
Shehbaz said none of the opposition’s demands for the budget was accepted, even though they ‘pulled apart the budget with facts’. “There has never been such an atrocious enemy budget,” he maintained. “I said sideline PM earlier. The prime minister and his team have failed, his team was sent back, and selected people are in now. They are running the economic team and Imran Khan and his team have nothing to do with the economy,” he said. Shehbaz said the Rahbar Committee will suggest a name for the Senate chairman. He rubbished rumours about differences among the opposition parties, saying, “There’s only speculation about disagreement and we are not even at that stage at the moment.”
Turning his attention to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and calling him “our one leader”, he commented on how the cruelty being perpetrated against him was the kind that was not even there in Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship. “Nawaz Sharif is not being allowed to meet his family on Imran Niazi’s orders and his mother and sister weren’t allowed to meet him either,” he added. “This is the worst example of fascism,” he lamented. Sharif said giving an opinion on any point is the beauty of democracy and that his party will accept a decision made unanimously. “Even if you try to pit us against the Pakistan People’s Party [PPP], we won’t fight them.”
On the activities of his successor, incumbent Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, he commented, “I won’t say anything about the Punjab chief minister’s performance … people should observe.”
“It is too soon to ask the question of a no-confidence campaign against the prime minister. [Nevertheless] such a campaign is the constitutional and democratic right of the opposition,” he said to a question. “Imran Khan is the biggest lying selected prime minister in a 71-year history,” he claimed, and explained that he asked in the House to tell him who had contacted whom for an NRO. “We have made errors in the past and we’re bearing the consequences from those. If we unite about not banning democracy, then the times will change,” he said. “We will lead a mature opposition. We had decided earlier that we will let the ‘darling’ be unmasked, and today, the country’s condition has proved that he has been unmasked,” he added.
Rana Sanaullah, Khurram Dastagir, Mian Javed Latif, Marriyum Aurangzeb, former foreign minister Khawaja Asif and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi were also present on the occasion.
