The rumour mill went into overdrive after conflicting statements by two of the main Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders pointed at divisions within the political party over its treatment of the “opponents” after returning to the power corridors.
Leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz on Saturday announced bringing the current rulers to justice, while ssenior party leader Khawaja Saad Rafique said that PML-N should bury ‘political witch-hunt’ after coming into power.
Addressing a ceremony at the PML-N secretariat to mark the birth anniversaries of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, Hamza said the “player” had played a game with Pakistan. He was referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan, and his team of ministers and aides.
He said the recent local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were just a glimpse of the treatment that would be meted out to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the upcoming polls, and claimed that the nation would pick up the PTI leaders and “throw them in the sea” in the next elections.
He said the solution to all the problems of Pakistan was in transparent elections. He was of the view that parliament could not make decisions without civilian supremacy, and democracy could not flourish without it.
Hamza said the builders of “New Pakistan” had said that they would provide 10 million jobs, but today millions of people were unemployed. “There is no money to make clothes and parents do not have money to feed their children,” the opposition leader. He further added that the PTI made false promises with the nation as it failed to give employment opportunities to the youth. He said the incumbent government lost its morality in just three years, and it had no right to rule the country anymore.
He said he doesn’t hate Imran Khan, but he was just anger because the PTI chief had made the lives of the common people miserable. “Where are the Rs200 billion that you promised to bring back to Pakistan,” he questioned. However, Saad Rafique proposed a different approach and said that settling scores must be stopped now. He said his party needed to take the first step towards ending the ‘political witch-hunt’ after coming into power for the sake of country’s stability and prosperity.
“If we want to protect the country of Quaid-i-Azam and want to stabilise the country of 220 million people, we have to end the practice of settling scores,” he said while addressing the gathering. He said haters of Nawaz Sharif had severely damaged Pakistan just by pursuing political vendetta.
He also blamed former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar for committing the contempt of court. “I became MNA four times and MPA three times but now I am left wondering what I have gained in politics, because false allegations were levelled against me by CJP Saqib Nisar that later proved wrong by his own Supreme Court,” he said.
Saad was of the view that Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister thrice, but his term wasn’t allowed to be completed. “We were declared Indian agents, but still people cast votes in our favour,” he remarked.
While extending an olive branch, the PML-N leader said he was not in favour of “eliminating” any political party, including the ruling PTI, and urged the incumbent government to maintain a working relationship with all political parties to run the affairs of the state smoothly.
