Fawad sceptical about Gen Bajwa’s statement

ISLAMABAD: Expressing his disbelief about the Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s statement that the “armed forces have distanced themselves from politics and want to stay out of it in future as well”, PTI Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday said it could be his wish but actually it never happened. He said this while appearing in a TV channel programme.

“It can’t happen in a day. Even if the army chief says so, the entire media will look at the military’s decisions. Staying away from politics can’t materialise in a day, as it involves a long process of two to three years. Democratisation of political parties is an important part of this process. After having completed this process, the military can say they have nothing to do with politics,” he said.

Meanwhile, talking to the reporters outside the Supreme Court here, Fawad said the government had changed the NAB laws to end its cases and the intended agenda had been completed with the regime change.

He wondered what happened to the fake accounts case of former Asif Ali Zardari and that the sub-section of Section 25 was discussed and the judges’ questions were also great that day. He said the government changed the NAB laws to end the cases while there was not a single day of discussion in the parliament with regard to amending the NAB laws.

He said those, who had paid billions under the plea bargain, will now get back that money, adding that Nawaz and Zardari both will get paid more than the aid the country had received for the flood victims.

He explained that after amendment to Section 25, a convicted person will be able to take the plea that he had opted for plea bargain under coercion and hence the amount should be paid him back.

Fawad said the biggest beneficiary of the amendment will be Zardari. He noted that so far Rs18 billion had been spent on NAB investigation, while the recoveries made were much more than that.

Today, he noted, the Election Commission of Pakistan has written to the State Bank of Pakistan about the accounts of Imran Khan, while it has reserved its judgment already and the lawyers have completed their arguments.

He alleged that the Election Commission was providing political protection to the PML-N and PPP in the accounts cases. “How this could be done now when the judgment has been reserved and new evidence could not be incorporated without listening to the arguments by the lawyers?”

Imran Khan, he pointed out, had earlier said that the main agenda of the change of government was to end their corruption cases. “It seems the process of accountability in Pakistan has been finished and the press conference held by Maryam Nawaz a day earlier is before everyone,” he said. About the audio leaks, he contended that if Maryam Nawaz did not know about the cipher, she should ask Tariq Fatemi because cipher was a system and not a letter or telegram.

He said Nawaz Sharif’s case has been cleared after amendments to the NAB laws and Shehbaz Sharif’s case worth Rs24 billion was also being cleared. He claimed that between 2 million and 2.5 million people would participate in the ‘real independence march’.