‘Facts often bitter, disastrous’
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan over his earlier assertion of Pakistan becoming a ‘jungle’, saying “facts were often bitter and disastrous” as he hinted at the former premier’s rule.
The statement comes a day after the ex-premier asked Shehbaz if military officers were above the law. The PTI chief, with a screenshot of the incumbent premier’s tweet, questioned if he could “dare” to ask the prime minister if he, as a citizen “who suffered two assassination attempts on his life in [the] last few months”, had the right to nominate those he thought “responsible” for the assassination attacks.
Retorting to Imran’s tweets, PM Shehbaz maintained that he had “no doubt” that Imran’s politics were defined by “blatant lies, untruths, U-turns, and vicious attacks on institutions”. He added that Imran bent the judiciary to his “whims” and behaved as if rules did not “apply” to him.
“What I said about you in my tweet is established by facts over the past few years,” he said, defending his earlier statement.
Listing “counter questions” Shehbaz stated that “maligning Pakistan Army as an institution” was a recurring pattern in Imran’s politics after his ouster. He questioned if Imran did “not resort to constant mud-slinging of the leadership of the army and intelligence agency much before the Wazirabad attack?”
He asked Imran what legal routes he adopted “other than hurling threats and making baseless allegations almost on a daily basis?”
“You refused the offer of cooperation from the federal government and boycotted the legal proceedings. You were never interested in finding the truth about the attack but used the condemnable incident for petty political objectives,” he stated.
He further questioned at whose behest “the savaging social media campaign against the martyrs of the armed forces [was] launched after the helicopter crash?”