LAHORE: Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday, commenting on the JIT proceedings, said justice was not being done and questioned where they should go when the judges called them godfather and mafia.
“Without any proof, we were also termed as godfather by the worthy judges. We are not godfather,” Saad said, adding that they were ready to face the court judgment on the Panama Leaks.
Saad said they would respect the court verdict but their argument should be listened to, adding that their reservations did not mean any disrespect to the judiciary.
He said governments were sent packing in the name of accountability in the past and promised a “comeback” if the PML-N government was removed. “We will stage a comeback if expelled from the government undemocratically and illegally,” he said during his address to the PML-N workers at a gathering.
Saad complained about conspiracies being hatched against the PML-N to remove the third-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying the elected leaders had always been removed by “unconventional means”.
“Whenever the PML-N is in power through popular vote, attempts are made to remove it through unconventional means,” he said.
He said the PML-N government was not being allowed to work freely during the last four years for one or the other reason.
“After Allah, people’s will brought our party at the Centre to run the country after 2013 general elections but we haven’t been allowed to work during the last four years for one or the other reason,” Saad said.
Addressing the party workers, the federal minister criticised the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Sharif family’s financial dealings, saying it was an investigation body, not an interrogative one. “Is the JIT trying to unearth the truth or just wandering aimlessly?” he asked.
“Are you conducting an investigation or fishing for big names,” he asked and said the JIT had not yet told the nation the name of the accused person who leaked Hussain Nawaz’s picture.
Saad said the respected judges equated their party with the Sicilian mafia which hurt them and their party workers badly but the party didn’t challenge the observation.
The minister said the PML-N would always reject the accusations against the prime minister who tried to put the country on the right track.
“We respect the judiciary and will always bow our heads before the institution in future as well,” he said and added that if Imran or Sheikh Rasheed had passed such remarks, then they would have considered them as a political statement.
Saad said PTI chief Imran Khan might not want to indulge in politics of abuse and accusations but his close aides were advising him to do so. “In trying to pull us down, Imran Khan also is pulling himself down,” the minister said, adding, “Imran Khan! If we go down, you would also go down and your turn wouldn’t come.”
Imran should learn the lessons as did the PML-N and the PPP learned after decades of rivalry, he added.
The minister said restoration of the judiciary was a landmark step in the political history of the country in which Nawaz played a key role. It was Nawaz who had led the lawyers movement in broad daylight despite the threat to his life whereas Imran was in hiding at that time, Saad recalled.
Nawaz even received calls from the leaders of two countries who advised him not to take part in the long march due to the threats but he didn’t listen to them and came out to get the judiciary restored.
He said respected judges, lawyers, civil society members, etc, also played their role for restoration of the judiciary.
Saad said everyone could testify to Junejo’s innocence yet he was dismissed. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy had said the same thing that Nawaz was saying, he added. “Till to-date, the world is saying that Bhutto’s hanging was a judicial murder but Bhutto continued to rule Pakistan from the grave,” he said.
The minister also took the PPP leadership to task, saying Asif Ali Zardari was dismissed by the public in 2013 elections due to his poor performance. He said during the PTI’s sit-in 2014, the federal capital and PTV building were attacked. But he paid rich tributes to the former army chief Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif for playing a positive role in the entire episode.
He said during the protests, demands were made to the umpire to raise his finger but the umpire clearly understood that he was a protector of the law.
