Former prime minister and PMLN Senior Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says Imran had been threatened by nation’s no-confidence in him not by any international power and if there was any such threat it must be presented in an in-camera session of the Parliament and the National Security Committee.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Abbasi said it was not a trivial matter that deserved be taken with the highest seriousness, rather than being waved around at public rallies and shared with news anchors. Threatening a Prime Minister was equivalent to threatening a country and if anyone had dared to do that, and that too with a letter, it must be evaluated, verified, discussed at the highest order to formulate and execute a jawbreaking response.
The former Prime Minister said it was imperative that this letter be shared with the highest institution of the country, the Parliament, in an in-camera session. He said if the letter and the threat was authenticated, the opposition would always stand with Pakistan’s sovereignty and interest. He also proposed that the diplomats of the country or countries that had supposedly threatened Pakistan must be immediately declared persona non grata and expelled from Pakistan for daring to think that they could threaten Pakistan.
Abbasi lashed out against the PTI Ministers who accused Nawaz Sharif of questionable anti-state activities. He said Imran and his touts cannot breathe twice without obsessing about Nawaz. He told them to approach the courts of their allegations had any weight because they did not accuse just any political leader but a Prine Minister who made Pakistan a Nuclear state.
“Nawaz Sharif was under tremendous international pressures and countless threats. But he never felt the need to wave letters in public meetins or cry over such pressures. Nawaz took a decision, which made Pakistan’s defense insurmountable, instead of creating a political fiasco. Imranmusy stop putting Pakistan’s foriegn policy and international relations at stake for his political gains”‘, he said.
These matters do not belong in the domain of a couple of federal ministers holding press conferences. Because no one had ever dared to threaten Pakistan in such an arrogant manner of writing tye entire threat in detail in a letter in the entire history of the country, he said. ‘If’ there was any such threat letter, it would end up in the Parliament after 6 days eventually after Imran loses the no-confidence motion. Therefore it was better if an emergency session of the Parliament be called on Wednesday (today), and this letter be presented, he stressed.
“Imran should either present the threat and threat letter to be authenticated and then appropriate and befitting response be strategized against it. Or he should apologize to the nation for cooking up this dangerous and massive lie just to fool the nation, and exploit their patriotic sentiment just to hang on to the seat of Prime Minister in his list for power”, he demanded.
Abbasi said it was also extremely important to question as to why did this threat surface during the no-confidence motion specifically and what were the reasons that it was brought to light when Imran was already on his way out.
Commenting on PMLQ’s decision to support Imran Khan in the no-confidence vote, he said an offer was made to PMLQ to join the no-confidence move or shoulder the unbearable burden of the incompetence, corruption and disasters of the PTI rule, over which they had made their decision which was their prerogative. Responding to a query over MQM, he said it was an independent political party and PMLN hoped that it would make a good political decision.
