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Thursday March 28, 2024

Mush return news laughable: Nawaz

By Our Correspondent
March 21, 2018

By News desk

ISLAMABAD: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday told reporters inside the accountability court that he could only laugh at the news regarding Musharraf coming back to Pakistan.

To a question that Musharraf has requested army for security, Nawaz said, “It means he is not coming.” When asked about Musharraf’s admission that Gen Raheel Sharif helped in letting him go out of the country, the former prime minister said he had no need to say anything in that regard. Nawaz has been appearing before the court since October last year. During his interaction with media, he has kept a mum whenever questioned about Chaudhry Nisar’s dissenting views. On Tuesday, Nawaz was once again asked about Nisar but he didn’t break his silence over this issue, whereas former federal minister Pervaiz Rashid has been taunting Nisar for his behaviour previously. Commenting on Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain, Nawaz expressed his joy over the televangelist’s decision to join the PTI. “PTI is made for such characters. Such personalities suit the PTI cadres,” he said in a sarcastic manner. He revealed that Aamir a few years back had been vying for PML-N but they didn’t induct him in the party.

Unlike the perception that Nawaz does not know much about classical Urdu poetry with an image of a typical Lahori with zeal for fun, for eating and for enjoying, he, during his two appearances before the court, has shared verses of Mirza Ghalib and amazingly without distorting these. He seems like a disheartened man carrying whatever he has with an indifferent approach toward the circumstances. It is not only evident from his body language but also the poetry he selects from time to time.

On Tuesday, Nawaz said the supplementary corruption references were repackaging of the old ones. Referring to the corruption cases that remained pending against Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari and other PPP leaders, the former prime minister said SGS Cotecna, NICL and rental power plants were the cases where they took kickback in cash, “whereas the cases against me are not based on the charge that I ever looted money from the national exchequer. These are the cases related to the business of my father back in 1974.” “Allah has been benevolent to us since 1937 and we did not become rich overnight. When they don’t find anything against us, they filed references for the assets beyond the known sources of income,” he said. In a lighter vein, Nawaz recollected an old movie of Dilip Kumar and narrated that Madho Bala was the wife of Dilip in that movie, who used to do witchcraft. “Once with her black magic, Madho Bala lit fire in the bedroom that burnt the whole surroundings. At that instance, Dilip Kumar said that someone who could not lit fire in the heart has burnt the room with fire. These references are quite akin to that situation. Had I committed corruption in motorway, NAB must have had some proof,” said Nawaz.

At this, Maryam Nawaz said, “Whatever NAB prosecution has been submitting before the court are the documents that we produced before Supreme Court.” A person who produced proven fake documents had been declared honest, she remarked about Imran Khan.

Nawaz said, “For the last six months, nothing has come to the surface. These are 40 years old incidents and if we have committed corruption, they should tell us. This is not a case of corruption. It is instead a case of assets. We ask them what corruption we did and they show us the assets. To form assets is not something bad,” he said. “These cases can be summarised in two words – ‘tum kon, main khawmakhwa’,” Nawaz remarked. To a question why Supreme Court Justice Dost Muhammad Khan refused to accept a farewell dinner, Nawaz said he did know about it. Replying to another question whether he would be convicted in these references, Nawaz said he would see then.

About Shahbaz Sharif’s meeting with the army chief, he said the news had been rebutted and “now talking about it is of no use”.

When asked that every person benefitting from him – Tahirul Qadri, Imran Khan, Musharraf and the chief justice – in return harmed him, Nawaz narrated a saying of Hazrat Ali (RA) who had stated that beware of a person whom you do some favour. “We should not associate hopes with others, he said and narrated a verse of Mirza Ghalib ‘Jab Tawwaqo Hi Uth Gayi Ghalib…..Kyun Kisi Ka Gila Karey Koi’ as well as some poetry of renowned Sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh.