Amraiz Khan
Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar has said that the allegations that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is targeting opposition are baseless as it is filing references without any discrimination. “The PTI is in favour of transparent and impartial accountability and will continue to struggle for the purpose.”
Governor Ch Sarwar was talking to the media after a meeting with a PTI delegation from Spain led by Abdul Ghaffar, which called on him at Governor’s House here on Friday. Political Secretary to Governor Mian Kashif Iqbal and Vice-Chairman of Overseas Commission Punjab Muhammad Wasim Ramey were also present on the occasion.
The governor regretted that each party in PDM has its own narrative. “Opposition parties contesting by-elections and the Senate elections will also withdraw from the Long March.” The Governor declared that the general elections will be held in 2023 no matter how many times the opposition parties resort to Long March. “Year 2021 will usher in a new era of development and prosperity in Pakistan.”
He said that we are not stopping the opposition from resigning but we say that when the opposition members resign, the Speaker National Assembly will accept these resignations and according to the constitution the Election Commission will announce by-elections.
Responding to a question, the Punjab governor said that the opposition had been trying to destabilize the country through protest rallies in 2020 but had failed in its intentions. He said that the government is not in any way concerned with the future political and protest strategy of the opposition. He said, the government is ready to face the opposition on all fronts, but I think that the position will make rational decisions and will ultimately agree to begin a dialogue with the government. The government is and will always be ready to talk to the opposition on all issues but there will be no compromise on the elimination of corruption. We will not back down from the principled stand against corruption under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he added.
Ch. Sawar said that whenever a member of the opposition gets arrested, the opposition starts saying that it is political revenge but the fact is that the affairs of accountability bodies including NAB have nothing to do with the government. All institutions are working independently. The government has not targeted anyone on political grounds in the past and will not do so in the future.
Governor Punjab said, “The government has nothing to do with the cases against the opposition. We have been talking about transparent and non-discriminatory accountability from day one. NAB is making references not only against the opposition but also against people from the government which clearly proves that NAB is completely independent.”
