PM asks Nawaz to return and face independent judiciary

Ag Agencies

BHIMBER/MIRPUR: Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday asked his predecessor Nawaz Sharif and his family members residing in the United Kingdom to return home and face trials to prove their honesty as the judiciary in the country “is fully independent”.

Sharif went to the United Kingdom for medical treatment in November 2019 and Khan on several occasions has alleged the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo went abroad to avoid accountability.

“The judiciary in the country is fully independent as Imran Khan did not attack courts or contact judges for seeking favourable judgments,” the Prime Minister said while addressing two separate election campaign rallies for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir general election on July 25. He said: “I ask them a question: Why are they sitting outside the country if they are honest and truthful? Why do they fear facing courts?”

The Prime Minister said PML-N-era finance minister Ishaq Dar, his son, Sharif’s sons, as well as the son and son-in-law of Shahbaz Sharif had been “absconding in London to avoid accountability”.

He said due to the independent judiciary and accountability process, even PTI’s ministers were not spared. The courts and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were free and not under any control, he added. “If these leaders are honest, then why do they fear the justice system,” the Prime Minister said.

Khan referred to Sharif’s “performance” as reminiscent of Bollywood acting. “His acting even moved the female members of our cabinet, who wept upon his health conditions, but the London air was such that the Nawaz Sharif that left and the Nawaz Sharif that disembarked from the plane were two different people,” the Prime Minister joked.

“If they did no wrong, then why they have been fleeing?” the Prime Minister asked the gathering once again and stressed upon them to pose question on polling day to the voters of those parties who had “plundered the country for the last 30 years”.

He added: “The corrupt leadership left the country because they realised that Imran Khan was not giving them any NRO.”

The Prime Minister said he did not leave the country when politically motivated cases against him were taken up by the Supreme Court. He said he faced the trial and submitted each and every evidence because he did no wrong.

He said “almost all the poor countries have Zardaris and Nawaz Sharifs” who had been siphoning off their national wealth and sending it abroad. In those countries, the Prime Minister said, corrupt leadership and corrupt members of parliament were ruling the roost.

The Prime Minister further observed that countries do not become poor due to lack of resources but due to lack of rule of law. “When the rulers consider themselves above the law and move about the world with NROs, only then are the countries ruined,” he said. “To bring the powerful bandits under the rule of law is the real fight for Pakistan and Kashmir. We have to enforce rule of law and rid the poor from the clutches of injustices.”

The Prime Minister asked the people to differentiate between the honest and truthful leadership and the others on July 25. He said he was very concerned about the future of the young generations of the country and wanted the country to become great. “I want to make a great nation, so that its green passport should be respected all over the world,” he added.

He said the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) had lifted the poor and helpless Arabs to rise and lead the world in the presence of two powerful empires of that time. After migration to Medina, those two empires crumbled and were defeated, he added.

The Prime Minister said by following the Holy Prophet’s Sunnah, they would achieve success and become a great nation. Unfortunately, he said, in the past, they (past rulers) were on the wrong path—begging bowls in hand—seeking loans and participating in others’ wars.

“This led to the lowering of respect. No one respects beggars and loan seekers. Even close relatives do not tolerate it,” he added.

He stressed upon the people that they had to change themselves by becoming truthful and honest for the country to become a great nation. He stressed there should be no two sets of laws for the poor and the “powerful NRO mafia”.

The Prime Minister said his party was waging a jihad against injustices. “Old system mafias are trying to save their skin and on a daily basis, we are fighting them,” he said, assuring people about his capability to face those “mafias” as a captain with their support.