Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday unleashed a new volley of criticism on the government, saying its continued defiance on implementing court’s verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was pitting state institutions against one and other.
Addressing a press conference after an emergency party meeting to discuss the fallout of the NRO case verdict, Nawaz said the precarious situation emerging in the country was threatening democracy and required early polls to extinguish the political unrest.
He warned the government against any “new adventure” and “breaking and shaking”. Nawaz said, “We will resist with full force any drama played by the government in the National Assembly session on Thursday.”
Top PML-N leaders who attended the meeting, including Chaudhry Nisar, Khawaja Asif, Punjab Chief Minster Shahbaz Sharif, and Mushahidullah Khan, summoned their party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) and parliamentary meetings in Islamabad on Thursday.
PML-N sources said that during the meeting, the government contacted Nawaz and took him into confidence on Thursday’s assembly session. Nawaz did not make any assurance and decided to map out the final strategy in the party meeting to he held in Islamabad, sources said, adding that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman also called Nawaz and discussed his recommendations. Nawaz said that better sense could prevail by showing patience, political wisdom and executing courts orders in letter and spirit. “The country cannot afford unconstitutional and undemocratic action, as only the democratic process is in Pakistan’s greater interest,” he added.
He said the government had escalated the confrontation between institutions, and made the Pakistani state a laughing stock in the world. He said the government was defying court’s orders on the NRO, which had been struck down by both the parliament and the apex court. He said the ministers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) even felt free to ridicule court’s verdicts.
He said the government had bred energy crisis, corruption, mismanagement and unemployment, which led to economic meltdown and global isolation. “Despite all this, the PPP government threw the country in a new string of crisis by not implementing court decisions,” he said, adding that the PML-N was willing to hold talks with all ruling and opposition parties in order to ease tensions.
“We also suggest to all parties allied with the PPP coalition government to refrain from supporting the government on NRO and other important issues. It is the responsibility of the government’s coalition partners to play their due role by parting their ways with the PPP to save the system,” Nawaz added.
