Stop vilifying Bajwa, Elahi tells PTI

LAHORE: A day after the announcement of the date for dissolution of the Punjab Assembly by Imran Khan, his ally and Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Sunday bashed him over his tirade against former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa (retd).

In a private TV channel interview on Sunday, he said that “Gen Bajwa gave many favours to us and the PTI. These favours should not be forgotten.”

Elahi said the PTI should “not be ungrateful”, adding that the former army chief “elevated the party’s stature from nothing” and supported the government on many international matters such as negotiating procurement of funds from Pakistan’s Arab allies or the International Monetary Fund.

“The PTI should not forget the favours given to it by Gen Bajwa; he helped them, he held meetings with Mohammad bin Salman, brought money from Qatar, handled the IMF matters in Belgium; he is Imran’s benefactor too,” added Pervaiz Elahi.

“When Imran Khan was sitting together and talking against General Bajwa, it felt very bad. Now if this happens, the whole party including me will speak. We would counter propaganda against the general. We are allies and not against Imran Khan and the PTI but we should not talk against him,” the Punjab chief minister said.

He disclosed that before Imran’s address, “We (Pervaiz Elahi, Moonis Elahi and Hussain Elahi) asked him not to speak against Gen Bajwa. But he committed a big mistake.”

The Punjab CM said, “Imran did a great wrong while criticising Gen Bajwa in my presence; he is our as well as Imran’s benefactor. If someone speaks against Gen Bajwa in future, I will be the first to react. What do they think of themselves? Have they descended from the heavens above?”

Pervaiz, while bashing Punjab government spokesperson Musarrat Jamshed Cheema and her husband over their comments against Gen Bajwa, angrily told them “stay in your limits.”

“They have made it a joke. Can a person be so ungrateful? To say whatever they want… stay within your limits. No one will say [anything more now],” the chief minister warned.

“I told [PTI Chairman Imran] Khan Sahib three months ago that Bajwa Sahib is ours, yours and PTI’s benefactor, so fear God and don’t speak against him.”

He said he had “felt very bad” about the entire situation but could not raise the issue since there were too many people and he could not have time for a personal meeting with Imran. “We will not tolerate this. He is our benefactor and we don’t hear anything against them,” Pervaiz added.

Since Gen Bajwa’s retirement, Imran has increasingly turned his criticism towards the former army chief and levelled a series of allegations against him.

The Punjab chief minister termed the country’s establishment more sensible than politicians, saying that it wanted the assemblies to complete their tenure, otherwise, Elahi added, it understands the economic crisis would deepen.

Speaking to a private TV channel, he revealed that the country’s Establishment was against the dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies and wanted the Houses to complete their tenure.

Pervaiz also complained that “Imran never made Moonis a minister” and further launched allegations against former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hameed, saying that “he committed injustice with us every now and then to get us arrested.”

He claimed that Gen Faiz was “strongly against” him, alleging that the ex-ISI chief had called the National Accountability Bureau chairman at the time and told him to “arrest me and Moonis” around the time of Bajwa’s extension. “He crossed all limits,” Parvez said, adding that he had then called Gen Bajwa who ‘straightened Faiz out’. “He (Gen Faiz) was not resisting and then he said that there were orders from above, from Imran Khan,” Elahi added.

“So what is this treatment? When have we never supported Imran?” the chief minister questioned, adding that the PTI had “straightened” after the PML-Q’s support for the Senate elections and made Moonis a federal minister.

He said God had “created such a situation” around the PTI and Imran that even my detractors were saying that “if you (Imran) don’t make Chaudhry Sahib [the chief minister], then your party will be over… and the PMLN will come [to power].”