ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has taken a conscious policy decision to create a rift between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the armed forces, and all of its senior leaders are forcefully projecting this point at every forum as per the party line.
“We have arrived at the conclusion after deep deliberations that Nawaz Sharif is following Narendra Modi’s agenda,” PTI spokesman Naeemul Haq said when contacted by The News. “That is why we are highlighting it on every available occasion.”
He said “not at all”, when asked whether the PTI has taken a deliberate policy decision to fuel a rupture between the premier and the army for its political objectives. “Rather, we are trying to redefine parameters of national security.”
Naeemul Haq echoed the same calculated party policy that PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other top party leaders are stressing everywhere. He criticized the premier for not conducting an investigation into the leak of contents of a meeting on national security; for deciding to attend the Heart Asia conference in India; for not speaking about arrested Indian spy Kulbushan Yadev etc.
Imran Khan is constantly trying to bring in the army in his tussle with the government for accomplishment of his overambitious agenda and mission to get rid of it.
In three days, he has issued as many statements to the effect. On Tuesday, he reiterated that Nawaz Sharif has become a “security risk” for Pakistan. On Monday, he alleged that the premier was isolating the army, and described him as the “biggest security threat”. “Nawaz Sharif has been seeking support from the Indo-Israeli lobby to safeguard himself and his corruption. We might also need the army for the ‘Motu’ gang. There was a connection between the prime minister and cross-border firing and whenever there is pressure on him, the Line of Control (LoC) becomes heated.”
On Sunday, the PTI chairman claimed that the premier will be responsible if the “third power” stepped in as a result of his party’s lockdown of Islamabad on November 2. “One person would be responsible if democracy was derailed; and the government is defaming the army on the pretext of PTI’s protest.”
More than leveling accusations against Nawaz Sharif, what Imran Khan has in fact declared is his wish because he has repeatedly failed through a number of his moves to dislodge him. His assertions are reflective of despair and despondency that has engulfed him because his protests have led him nowhere near his ultimate goal.
Nawaz Sharif is not the only popular leader of Pakistan, who has been subjected by his archrival to such charges. Similar wild allegations were also hurled over Benazir Bhutto for years. But no accuser ever dared to agitate it in any court of law to prove the charge against her. Similarly, the PTI chairman also has no plan to knock at the door of a superior court to arraign the prime minister in this connection.
The tendency to dub certain elements including even senior politicians as ‘traitors’ and ‘security risk’ has already done a great damage to Pakistan. Such charges have never produced anything good for those making them.
It has been established ad nauseam that these allegations are just a humbug that is raised only to take mileage against political adversaries. It is indeed disgraceful to wildly claim that even the highest office holder of Pakistan, who represents the people for having been elected by them, is a security threat or is in cahoots with the Israeli or Indian lobby.
Imran Khan is not the only figure who has tossed such accusations over the premier. A concerted whispering campaign has been going on to present Nawaz Sharif being soft on India. Sheikh Rashid and Allama Tahirul Qadri have been openly leveling such allegations. However, facts belie all these lies. No prime minister or president including the military dictators ever picked up the courage to take on India in the harshest tone that Nawaz Sharif adopted in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly on the Indian brutalities in the held Kashmir.
Imran Khan’s charges leave no doubt about the dejection overwhelming him on the eve of his November 2 lockdown of the federal capital, a unique protest in any democratic country of the world.