Imran wants to use SC politically: Sethi

Says PPP, PML-N heading for a compromise

LAHORE: Senior analyst Najam Sethi has said that Imran Khan wanted to use the Supreme Court (SC) politically on the issue of Panama leaks, but he would not succeed in it.

Speaking in Geo News programme Apas Ki Baat on Tuesday, Sethi said that the Supreme Court judges did not believe in interference in political affairs. They only wanted to go by the book.

Sethi said Imran Khan had adopted a good policy currently. He believes that pressure should be exerted on the government from every side. He is pursuing a legal path and also wanted to launch a political movement. He wanted to bring under pressure courts, assembly and the Election commission through container politics.

Sethi said Imran knows it well that his case is very weak legally, and that is why he also wanted to use political pressure. He also wanted to dominate the media through a protest movement. If anything happens bad in protest movement, it will benefit Imran Khan, added Sethi.

Sethi said had Imran Khan developed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa into a model province, the entire Pakistan would have voted for him in the next general elections.

Giving his analysis of the Panama leaks terms of reference (ToRs), Sethi said the government and the PPP have agreed on enacting a new law to investigate Panama leaks. However, they have not reached consensus on its ToRs yet, he added.

The analyst said that the People’s Party and the Muslim League are heading for a compromise, and the PPP would not go with Tehreek-e-Insaf. However, he added, if the tussle between Chaudhry Nisar and the PPP did not end, the progress made between the two sides so far could derail. Sethi said Ch Nisar did not tell a lie. Definitely, someone from the PPP would have come to him on the issue of Ayyan Ali and Dr Asim, and he must have delivered some message. Sethi said there had long been the media talks about Ayyan Ali’s relations with the PPP, particularly Asif Ali Zardari.

Sethi said according to his sources, the PPP has made three-four demands of the PML-N, and two of them are about Ayyan Ali and Dr Asim cases, and someone had also gone to Ch Nisar in this regard. Sethi said that Ch Nisar was acting as an ‘independent republic’ currently, and sometimes he issued very harsh statements. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not agree with Ch Nisar on every issue, but he did not want to intercept him. Sethi said Ch Nisar has a lot of importance in the PML-N, especially in Rawalpindi division. Ch Nisar did not want to become the interior minister, and in fact he was interested in another ministry, which is also attractive for our Khakhi brothers.

The analyst said that the PPP would not go with Tehreek-e-Insaf, and it would stand with the prime minister. PPP’s real talks would be held with Ishaq Dar. Sethi said a tussle between the PPP leaders and Chaudhry Nisar would continue; however, the policy decision would be made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Ishaq Dar would implement the decision.

Analysing Mahmood Khan Achakzai statement, Sethi said that Ch Nisar believes that in the current circumstances, nobody should talk of intelligence failure, as we have been besieged from all sides. On the one side is India and on the other is Afghanistan, and secret agencies of both these countries are committing terrorism in Pakistan.

Ch Nisar says that Achakzai should also have mentioned Indian and Afghan agencies’ terrorist activities in Pakistan.

Sethi said that Achakzai’s assertion was right to an extent that Quetta carnage was an intelligence failure, but it was wrong to say that Pak intelligence agencies keep a watch on each and everything. Sethi said it was very difficult to keep an eye on every suicide bomber. Sethi said declaring Achakzai a traitor was absolutely wrong. Under the Constitution of Pakistan, criticism of every intelligence agency is allowed and they too had the right to defence themselves.