LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: PML-N leaders on Monday said everyone had relations and asked the political rivals not to drag the institutions into their negative politics.
Addressing a press conference, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq, who was in a rather aggressive mood, said both PTI and PPP should stop maligning judiciary and armed forces while using the Panama Papers case, terming it a grand conspiracy against the institutions, democracy and the country.
Saad said the evidence provided as Panama Papers was worthless because the information had been stolen and thus without any legal value. He said Imran Khan’s PTI and Asif Zardari’s PPP – the political opponents of PML-N – were hungry for power and had crossed all the limits in their lust. “They are so blinded by this lust that they have not even refrained from slinging mud at the most respected institutions of the country like armed Forces and judiciary.”
Saad hinted that both Zardari and Imran were enemies of the state, alleging that “both these opposition parties intentionally or intentionally are undermining and questioning the work of army regarding the fight against terrorism”.
Saad said Imran had lost the case on all fronts since the Supreme Court had rejected all seven of his claims. He declared the criticism of PML-N an attempt to malign the party ahead of 2018 elections.
The minister said the two judges, who gave their verdict against the prime minister, were respectable, though the party didn’t feel that their judgment was in accordance with the law. He added that the judgment could certainly be objected to.
He said Imran had personally signed the decision to form the judicial commission and committed that he’d accept the verdict. The PTI chief was fighting the Panama battle to hide his failures, he remarked, adding that Zardari too had the same reasons behind his statements.
Saad challenged both PPP and PTI to mention a single megawatt of power installed in the provinces these parties governed. “Khan Sahab! Now it’s your turn to be questioned.”
He criticised Imran’s double standards where he is desperate to demand accountability of Nawaz Sharif but hides behind bureaucratic procedures and jurisdictions when it comes to his own.
The minister said the PML-N had defeated both the rival parties in previous elections and would win the upcoming polls with two-thirds majority. “Zardari is drowning in the sea of corruption. We know how truly powerful Zardari is and why he is feeling bad. PPP is not Benazir Bhutto’s party rather it belongs to Zardari,” Saad said, asking him to stop threatening the PML-N.
He also mentioned that the Supreme Court was not given an atmosphere under which it could give a ‘free verdict’ on the Panama Papers case. The ‘pressure actors’, he added, held a separate court on ‘Shahrah-e-Dastoor’ during the case hearing and established their own courts on certain media channels as well.
“The circumstances were not there for the Supreme Court to work freely,” he alleged. He warned Aitzaz Ahsan not to drag the prestigious institution of armed forces and security agencies into their dirty games of political mud-slinging.
Zaeem Qadri, speaking on the occasion, said the PPP and Zardari needed to explain where they spent Rs 90 billion in Larkana. He criticised the performance of PPP in Sindh and said they had pushed the province to Stone Age.
And in Islamabad, Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said the opposition was trying to make joint investigation team (JIT) for the Panama case probe controversial by passing deliberate statements.
She said dragging non-political institutions into politics was improper attitude – a tradition which must come to an end. She said the Supreme Court on Monday stated that dissenting notes were written around the world in judgments.
In an interview with a private TV channel, she said two important institutions had to clear their stance on the matter due to objectionable remarks by opposition leaders. The opposition should calmly wait for the JIT report instead of using the robe for political gains, she added.
Marriyum slammed Imran and suggested that he should keep quiet. She said, “Their intentions would be interpreted differently if they continue to make noise on the Panama case verdict.”
She said the chief justice had to speak over the improper attitude of opposition, while the ISPR also reacted to the issue, saying such statements were improper. Similarly, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry told a TV channel that the government would accept the JIT report. The Supreme Court would supervise the JIT, he said, adding the decision to constitute the JIT was taken by the court. Talal reminded the audience that Imran and the PPP had criticised the Supreme Court verdict.
