BUNER: Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif has on Monday challenged ‘those issuing sermons of treason’ to form a national commission to determine whose acts have been treasonous.
Talking to a public meeting in Buner, the disqualified former prime minister said that he had made Pakistan a nuclear power despite all the odds, resolved the issue of load shedding and terrorism during his 5-year tenure. “How can I be a traitor? How can someone who has served the country for 30 years be a traitor? The people have loved me for over 30 years now and that is the response to their accusations”, he said.
Nawaz said that he was ready to present himself before a national commission that would determine who exactly had committed treason. “I will appear before that commission. Others should also come. Whoever then is found guilty by that commission of having committed treason should be hanged publically”, he thundered.
Maryam said why wasn’t the person who removed 60 judges with a stroke of pen, detained them at their homes, dragged a former chief justice with his hair and imposed emergency in the country not a traitor but the man who had made the country a nuclear power was
He came down hard on the political opponents, saying that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had done nothing in its 5-year rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as the province lagged behind the rest of the country. Nawaz claimed that he’d construct a web of motorways across KP after being elected in the coming elections.
Earlier, while addressing the rally, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz was equally charged as she strongly criticised the political opponents. Alluding to the former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf, Maryam said why wasn’t the person who removed 60 judges with a stroke of pen, detained them at their homes, dragged a former chief justice with his hair and imposed emergency in the country not a traitor but the man who had made the country a nuclear power was.
Both also highlighted the Kargil fiasco during their speeches. Nawaz Sharif said that he had won a face saving for the country in the Kargil war but was being termed a traitor. Maryam Nawaz also lashed out at Musharraf for the Kargil misadventure.
Nawaz Sharif’s demand for forming a national commission to decide on the allegations of treason has come at a time when he is being criticised for saying in an interview that Pakistan should complete the Mumbai Attacks trial.
A declaration after the meeting of National Security Council (NSC) on the issue earlier today had categorically stated that ‘the former PM’s statements ignored concrete evidence and facts’. However, in a press conference later Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi clarified that the NSC had condemned the misreporting of Nawaz’s statement, not his statement.
“The statements attributed to Nawaz are factually incorrect and are being presented in a wrong light by the Indian media. He told me that he has not made such comments and his words have been misrepresented and taken out of context”, he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s press conference was ignored by the state media. Pakistan Television did not air the press conference where he discussed his meeting with former PM Nawaz Sharif after the NSC meeting.
In his presser, the premier also said that he and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif fully supported former premier Nawaz Sharif. “He is still my PM”, Abbasi said.
