Marwat calls Nawaz's ouster 'wrong' after his expulsion from PTI

Amid his differences with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership after his expulsion from the party, MNA Sher Afzal Marwat termed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's ouster from power "wrong".

"No one has any doubt that former army chief Gen [retd] Qamar Bajwa conspired with ex-chief justice Saqib Nisar to oust Nawaz," the disgruntled politician said while speaking to a private news channel on Monday.

Nawaz lost the prime minister’s office in 2017 and the presidency of his party in 2018, as a result of the Panama Papers ruling. He was sentenced to seven years in jail by an accountability court in the Al-Azizia case in December 2018.

The PTI has been facing "internal rifts", with members of its senior leadership having differences on various matters after the incarceration of the party founder in 2023.

Recently party stalwart Marwat was expelled, which he blamed on "de-facto" Secretary General Salman Akram Raja. Before Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was removed as the head of the party’s provincial chapter and replaced by Junaid Akbar.

Speaking to the private news channel today, Marwat said Nawaz was removed through a joint conspiracy hatched by the then-establishment and ex-CJP Nisar. However, he clarified, that the PTI could not have played any role in Nawaz's ouster.

"The crime for which he [PML-N president] was convicted was wrong...if he had been removed in Avenfield or Panama, it would be different," he added.

Furthermore, he said, Nawaz still does not understand why he was ousted. "Why was I removed? I too, do not understand," he said, comparing himself with the PML-N president.

He noted that the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) distributed sweets when PTI founder Imran Khan was sentenced in the Iddat and cipher cases. "Similarly, PTI distributed sweets when Nawaz was removed," he added.