I don’t endorse the way Nawaz becoming PM, says Abbasi

LAHORE: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Saturday he did not agree to the way Nawaz Sharif was using to become a prime minister.

In an informal conversation with journalists at ThinkFest 2024 here, he said those who lack moral courage, should not enter the field of politics. He said there was no power in the ‘chair’ in Pakistan and he just acted as the prime minister.

“Nawaz Sharif should get 30 seats instead of 100 but refuse to get support of the establishment; he should not be discouraged by the number of seats,” he advised.

He said he had not left politics and was still with the PMLN. He said he would not contest election against the PMLN. The former prime minister said political relationship with the PMLN was no longer intact. Abbasi said behind the failure of Imran Khan was the stolen election [in 2018] and he was facing the present situation because of that episode.

Shahid Khaqan said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was humiliating politicians and he was the first victim of NAB. He had repeatedly asked Shehbaz Sharif to abolish NAB, he added. The former PM said he had advised Miftah Ismail not to resign and told him to stand firm but the PMLN forced him to resign, and humiliated him.

Earlier, addressing the event, Shahid Khaqan said, “We have a constitution that mentions delimitation of provinces.” He said Pakistan needed a democratic system and the present parliamentary system needed a lot of improvement. He said be it governance or system of relations, change was inevitable. “Pakistan needs dialogue and leadership should talk to neighbouring countries,” Abbasi said adding that earlier the system had failed and people kept blaming each other.

He claimed that the upcoming elections would not bring any improvement, and only new faces would reach assemblies. He alleged that politicians, judiciary and military leadership together were corrupting the Constitution, and Pakistan’s failure was due to lack of leadership. Shahid Khaqan said he did not believe that the election would solve any problems, and maintained that bureaucracy needed to be overhauled in a big way, while there was an urgent need to work on bureaucracy in the Federation. The biggest problem here was controlling bureaucracy, and people of the local government come up through corruption.

Many decades have passed, the prime minister and the ministers did not have power; the bureaucracy was asked to work and they replied that the order had come from the ‘above’, the former premier alleged. He suggested immediate reforms in the FBR to benefit the country. He claimed that five education systems were running in Pakistan, the quality of education was very poor, the education boards had completely failed and those need to be improved in quality.

He called for strengthening women and giving them with opportunities. Women were strong, but they did not get opportunities, he added. In every field, women performed better than men, he claimed.

Punjab was at the forefront, but more provinces should be made. He said if something would happen to Punjab, Pakistan’s system would collapse. Dialogue with Pashtuns and Baloch should be done and their problems should be solved. He regretted that no province was working for dialogue with Pashtuns and Baloch.

In future, no political party would be able to get two-thirds majority, Shahid claimed and said people did not know how to talk if they sit in the opposition outside the parliament. Shahid said new generation of the country had lost hope due to the current situation of the country.

“On the issue of American intervention, I will say that if the house is weak, people will come from outside,” Abbasi said and added that the army came when politicians gave them a chance.

Former finance minister Miftah Ismail said if the PTI or any party was not given electoral symbol, the next elections would become controversial. In an informal conversation with the media at the same venue, Miftah Ismail alleged that the former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s criticism of his economic policies was heard because he was the relative of Sharif family. “People in Pakistan are capable. It is not right to depend only on the Sharif family, the founder of PTI and Bhutto family,” he added.

The problem how to run Pakistan was still not solved, Miftah Ismail said and claimed that no one wanted to follow the Constitution. The problem was not the Constitution but implementation of the Constitution, he added and said the provinces did not trust each other and the country did not have local government system, though it existed in the Constitution.

Miftah Ismail said no organisation was working in Pakistan and two budgets were presented in the past. He said the army had the highest budget, and he had no problem with that but the power and use of army in politics was the main problem. Ismail claimed that in the elections of 2014 and 2018, there was a lot of military intervention.

Small farmers should be subsidized instead of big companies, Miftah said, adding that in Pakistan, 20 per cent less crops were harvested than in India and China. “I believe that everyone benefits from their land and even small land can grow crops,” Miftah Ismail added and said farmland had to be taxed yearly and the government needed to focus and spend money on research to get the best seeds.

“If corruption is to be eradicated, elected local government must be brought in,” he added. When the PMLN came to power, it was said that they would restore local government but did not, Miftah recalled.

A local system has to be brought for education and health; otherwise, corruption would not end, Miftah Ismail said adding that between 3,000 and 27,000 schools were lying vacant in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the population was increasing at the rate of 2.6 per cent, adding that 800,000 children were born in a year, 280,000,000 are out of school currently.

While talking to the media, he said it was up to the nation to decide whether the powerful institution should run the country or the elected people. Miftah said presidential system or the chief ministerial system be determined and the Constitution should be implemented. The army should not interfere in politics, he said and added that earlier the PMLN was against the army intervention, but now they were clapping for them.