KOT MOMIN: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday blamed the superior judiciary for what he called growing violence and skyrocketing prices in the country.
“There is a rise in inflation again. Petroleum prices are hiking … the queues at CNG stations are growing. Violence and insurgency has doubled,” the deposed premier told party workers in Kot Momin. He said when he was in charge, things were progressing. However, he was quick to clarify that PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif were not to blame for this. “The people who disqualified me are to be blamed for this,” he said.
The former prime minister claimed that he fulfilled his promises of eradicating load shedding and terrorism from the country. The economy was once again suffering and inflation increasing due to his disqualification, he claimed.
Blasting the judiciary, Nawaz said he was first dislodged from the office of the prime minister for not receiving salary from his son and then was disqualified from the party presidency. He said renowned lawyers as well as politicians acknowledged that the court decision was not ‘correct’. He said that the five judges who disqualified him stood against the will of the scores of people who voted him in. “Even Imran Khan – who filed the Panama Papers case – says that the judgement is weak. What’s the worth of such a verdict then?” he asked.
Amid slogans against the Supreme Court verdicts against him, Nawaz said his disqualification had mutilated the sanctity of votes. “Those who do not respect votes, people will not respect them,” he declared. “I have taken the first step, now you have to walk with me,” he told the gathering.
Nawaz termed the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to not allow PML-N to contest Senate elections from the party’s platform a ‘pre-poll rigging’. “This is unfair. This is what’s being meted out to the largest political party in the country,” he said, adding that he was not the one to back down, however.
“They’re trying to kick me out, but the people are bringing me back in,” he said, adding, “This is the fight for Pakistan’s survival … for your rights, and we will win this fight”.
The PML-N leader said plans were afoot to push Pakistan backwards, but people will not let such machinations succeed. He said the schemes were being spun to debar him from doing politics for life.
Published in Daily Times, March 1st 2018.
