ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Gujranwala jalsa a “circus”, and urged the judiciary to hold day-to-day hearing for taking the corruption cases to a logical conclusion as the government is ready to provide all the logistic support to it.

Addressing a Tiger Force Convention on Saturday, the prime minister said his message to the judiciary, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was to hold day-to-day hearing, and the government would provide them all the logistic support as the nation was waiting for decisions on the corruption cases. The prime minister said that those who had plundered the national exchequer would not get any “VIP jail”, and would be treated like ordinary prisoners. He said now the opposition would see an “entirely different kind of Imran Khan,” and stated that “we will not give any production order to any corrupt even to the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, who is facing Rs23 billion corruption charges.”

The prime minister said he would face the opposition, and stated that he would direct all the departments under his domain to swiftly pursue corruption cases.

The prime minister said that Nawaz Sharif wanted to become prominent in the eyes of anti-Pakistan forces.

“I have all the intelligence about the game he is playing,” he said, adding that “General Bajwa helped the government in Karachi, in corona, locusts, and even helped the government, by surrendering increase in armed forces budget”.

“My effort is to bring Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan, and will put him in ordinary jail,” he said, adding that the language former prime minister used against the army chief and the ISI DG was exactly the same being used by Narendra Modi.

Never before in the history of subcontinent had there been a government like that of Modi’s, which hates Muslim so much, he said, adding that “this attack by Nawaz Sharif was not on General Bajwa but the Pakistani Army”.

He further stated that Nawaz joined politics with the help of General Ziaul Haq and General Gilani, and stated that unfortunately the courts also treated him leniently in the past.

The prime minister said that Nawaz Sharif and Zardari could sell even their country to protect their “looted money” and Nawaz Sharif had a history of attacking the Supreme Court, bribing judges, and began speaking against the five-member bench, when the court gave verdict against him.

The prime minister said he did not want to speak about Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maryam Nawaz because they joined politics without any struggle, and did not work even for an hour to earn a living, and had been living on dishonestly-earned money of their fathers”.

The prime minister also maintained that PML-N’s Khawaja Asif made a telephone call to General Bajwa on election night to seek his support, when he was losing election against PTI’s Usman Dar.

Reuters adds: In his speech, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday accused the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa of toppling his government, pressuring the judiciary, and installing the current government of Prime Minister Imran Khan in the 2018 elections.

Sharif was speaking via video link from London to a gathering of tens of thousands of people organised by opposition parties to kick-off a countrywide protest campaign in the eastern city of Gujranwala aiming to oust Khan's government.

“Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country at the alter of your wishes," Sharif told the gathering - the largest since the 2018 elections.

The former prime minister also accused the chief of Inter-Services Intelligence of being involved in conspiring against his government.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020