Aleema Khan, the sister of former prime minister Imran Khan, has described PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s claim to victory as an “insult to Pakistanis”. “Nawaz Sharif has been sent back. This is how he does it. He spends four years in London. I think it’s a big insult to Pakistanis that we accept people like that. We don’t,” she said in an interview with international media outlet. She was asked about the PML-N supremo Sharif making claims to victory and his speech that the country does not have the space for a fight.
Sharif was the first politician to come out and claim victory in the election after the PML-N emerged as the single largest party in the poll. He has announced his bid to form a coalition government. The party has started reaching out to other political parties to make alliances. “I would be embarrassed as a Pakistani to think that this is acceptable for us. It isn’t acceptable to Pakistanis,” she went on. Aleema described her brother as an “alternative” in dealing with the country’s challenges.
She was of the view that her brother inspired a “revolution” in Pakistan from behind bars on February 8. She said lawyers had visited Imran and that he “sent out a very clear instruction that you have to go out, protest outside the returning offices and recover your seats. The ones that have been stolen.” According to the government, the victory of PTI-backed independent candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was proof of electoral transparency. “It wasn’t Imran Khan’s vote that they took away,” she said, “they took away the right of 15 million people to recognise the symbol. That bat was a symbol that 15 million people who are illiterate recognise their candidate with.”
