Our Correspondent
Swat
Ousted premier Nawaz Sharif on Friday launched a fresh attack on the security establishment and once again blamed the army and ISI chiefs for allegedly plotting his ouster from the power in 2018.
“I cannot blame the entire army for the lawlessness of a few individuals,” he said while addressing via video link his Pakistan Muslim League-N’s latest power show in Swat on Friday.
Nawaz once again named Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed and said: “When I say that Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and [Lt] Gen Faiz Hameed should answer why they did this to Pakistan, why they threw Pakistan in a ditch, they say ‘why does Nawaz Sharif take our names?’
“Gen Bajwa and [Lt] Gen Faiz, you formed a JIT of your choice, secured decisions of your choice as well, removed Nawaz Sharif from premiership, put me, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and my party members in jail. Our character assassination through media is still underway.”
In his speech, the PML-N supremo said that his “crime was to talk about people’s rights, Constitution, democratic principles”.
“But what crime did the people commit? Why were your lives made difficult?” he said and added that he was not seeking answers from Prime Minister Imran but from those “who brought him to power”.
“He (PM Imran) is a puppet. The people who move his strings will have to answer,” declared the former prime minister.
Nawaz’s daughter and PML-N Vice President
Maryam Nawaz also addressed the crowd where she levelled criticism against the incumbent government once again. Terming the prime minister an “irrelevant character”, she urged the institutions to “withdraw their support” for Imran.
“Once the institutions back away from him, his government will not even stand for 24 hours, I assure you,” she told the participants of the gathering.
The PML-N vice president appealed the people of Swat to vote for her party in the upcoming Gilgit-Baltistan elections.
“I wish Swat would vote for PML-N, not because I want PML-N to form a government but because I want to see the same development here as in Lahore.”
Maryam also alleged that it had been “decided” that the PML-N would only be given two to three seats in the GB Assembly but after observing the huge crowds in the party’s public meetings, it was agreed that the party will have to be given at least seven to eight seats.
“If you indulge in rigging, it would be your loss, if you don’t, it will still be your loss,” she said, while addressing the incumbent government. “You will have to go home soon.”
Maryam asked those who had made tall claims of development to tell whether they have built a single hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Taking a jibe at the government, the PML-N vice president said that copying former Punjab CM and party president Shahbaz Sharif, the government tried to start a metro bus project in the province but there were incidents of buses of Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit catching fire.
