Nawaz Sharif trying to woo judges: PM Imran Khan

KAMALIA: Firing a broadside at PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Nawaz Sharif is trying to woo judges against his government.

Addressing a huge public meeting here on Saturday, he said the opposition parties wanted to shut all corruption cases against their leaders by abolishing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after coming to power through its no-confidence motion against him. “If the opposition comes to power, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would return to Pakistan from England to take support from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which already stands with him, to fulfil his design to attack the judiciary,” he claimed.

The Prime Minister alleged that it was PMLN leader Nawaz Sharif who had bribed journalists and judges and bought parliamentarians to fulfill his designs. “If Nawaz Sharif succeeds in destroying the NAB and the judiciary, his next target will be the army as he had problems with every Army Chief he appointed, because he knew the army’s intelligence agencies would detect his corruption,” he added.

He said if he lost power through the no-confidence vote, the opposition should be aware that it would be a small price to pay and he would go after it even if he faced threats to his life.

He charged that MNAs were being bribed for voting for the no-confidence motion from looted national wealth and urged the people to reach Islamabad for his public meeting to express their feelings that they were against the “corrupt opposition” which wanted to oust an elected prime minister. He claimed that the public meeting would show the opposition that people stand with the truth.

The Prime Minister thanked Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Maulana Fazalur Rehman for their “help in boosting the PTI’s support base by launching a movement against his government and tabling the no-confidence motion. “I thank three stooges, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, for boosting the PTI's support base. There have been record exports, textile production, and tax collection and it has helped us spend money on people," he said. He claimed inflation in Pakistan was still low as compared to other countries of the world. “This is why the gang of thugs has united against the government," he added.

Earlier, a number of rallies reached Kamalia from Gojra, Rajana and Pirmahal. The Prime Minister visited Kamalia on the invitation of PTI MNA Riaz Fatyana and he had campaigned for a week for the success of the public meeting while the district administration also helped him by providing government resources, locals alleged. Meanwhile, former MPA and PML-N district president Amjad Ali Javed claimed that buses were forcibly impounded by the police to transport people to Kamalia, as a result passengers faced great hardships. Addressing a press conference, he said heads of all government departments and educational institutions were ordered by the administration to take away staff and students to Kamalia for the meeting.

APP adds: The Prime Minister said that the “three stooges” had hatched conspiracies against his government after he refused an NRO-like relief to them. He said March 27 would be a decisive day in the country’s history as a mammoth crowd would gather in the capital on his call to give a message to “criminals” that the days of their plunder and loot were over. “The day will revive the nation. When a nation stands for the truth, it revives itself. The whole nation should raise its voice to end evil and vice,” he added. He again called Maulana Fazl “diesel” and Shehbaz Sharif “a shoe polish expert.”

The Prime Minister said that Allah Almighty had ordained people to stand with the truth and wage a jihad against evil, while remaining neutral in the struggle was not allowed. “The big thieves have been plundering the country for the last thirty years. One politician known as “diesel” has been in politics in the name of religion while the biggest illness of the country, Asif Zardari, has been facing graft cases over his billions of rupees’ corruption in fake accounts cases. Over Rs3.79 billion was transferred to the account of Shehbaz Sharif’s peon Maqsood, whereas Rs160m was found in the accounts of his other servants. The case is pending adjudication as Shehbaz Sharif has been evading proceedings on one pretext or the other. He has realised that if Imran Khan remains in power, he will go to jail,” he said, adding the fourth actor was in London, who had been declared an absconder by courts.

He said corrupt people had been maneuvering against his government after realising that it had successfully steered the country out of a financial crisis and the pandemic.

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and other provincial leaders were also present.