Why I was ousted if judges want fair polls, asks Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: Referring to a statement of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar about ensuring free and fair election, former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Friday said if the judiciary wanted free and fair election then why he was removed as the PML-N president.

Talking to the reporters inside the accountability court (AC), he said all genuine political parties and people of Pakistan would play their role to ensure free and transparent general election in 2018.

Asked whom he considered as ungenuine political parties, Nawaz in an apparent reference to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said: “Those who talk about politics of principles. What have they done in the Senate election? Who is Sadiq Sanjrani? He was named by a group of six senators and became the Senate chairman. Now these parties have become exposed and are just trying to fool the public. They deceive and manipulate the youth.”

“Both the PPP and PTI look for the umpire’s finger and use backdoors. These people don’t have courage to do public politics. This may be the reason that now their rallies have reduced to 100 or 200 people,” he added.

Asked if the opposition alliance’s victory in the Senate election was not a democratic practice, Nawaz remarked: “What sort of democracy is this that they first removedan elected government to pave way for the Senate election.”

Referring to the opposition parties, Nawaz said: “If they wanted us to lose this election, they should have used their own power.” He once again talked about judicial reforms. He said the PML-N would include judicial reforms in its manifesto. He also stressed that amendments to the contempt law was also necessary and the door to amendments should always remain open.