- Imran says it is just a matter of time before Nawaz vacates PM House
Demanding resignation from Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) speeds up its efforts to convince other political parties to demand separate sessions of the Senate and the National Assembly in a bid to give a tough time to the government.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi held a telephonic conversation with opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah. Both the leaders discussed the latest political situation. They agreed on consulting the strategy pertaining to the summing of the assembly session soon.
To this effect, both the leaders agreed on holding meeting on Tuesday (today) morning in Islamabad. Qureshi said that they would demand resignation from the prime minister during the upcoming assembly session. The opposition lawmakers submitted a requisition in the Senate Secretariat to summon early session.
Talking to journalists, PTI Chairman Imran Khan called on Nawaz Sharif to immediately resign as the prime minister in light of the JIT report. He claimed that the report’s findings have vindicated him and finally the opposition’s hard work paid off. He said that his party’s reservations proved to be true.
He alleged the ruling party went all out to obstruct the investigation and in the process discredited the state institutions, compelling them to use wrong methods. “I am grateful that at the end truth has prevailed, whatever we have been saying all along today came out before everyone,” he said. He claimed that the ruling party tried to carry out propaganda against him and his family members in order to hide their theft.
“I congratulate the nation as our struggle has met success and justice has been served,” he said, adding that the game is over; it is just a matter of time before Nawaz vacates the Prime Minister’s House. He reiterated that few institutions were working to save the ruling family from accountability, saying the SECP chairman being found guilty by the apex court of tampering record was an evidence.
He claimed that Sharif family has been looting the country for the past 30 years but now their time is over. He said that Nawaz Sharif should have resigned on moral grounds the day two judges had ruled that he was no more fit to hold public office. He said that the negative role of institutions including the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has been exposed in the report.
Accusing the Sharif family of making institutions obstruct justice, he said that the Sharifs did everything they could to stop the state institutions from performing their duties. “Instead of sending a reference against him [Nawaz], Speaker Ayaz Sadiq forwarded the reference against me,” the PTI chief said while demanding a resignation the speaker along with Nawaz and Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“They have been asking what their crime is, let me tell them today, money laundering is your biggest crime,” he said, explaining that laundering money was a bigger crime than corruption since the consequences of former on the country’s economy are much greater than that of the latter. He also said that Maryam Nawaz was the only person in the Panama case who claimed that her family’s name had been included by mistake.
“No one else denied that they had an offshore company other than Maryam Nawaz,” he said. “But now the [JIT] report has proven Maryam Nawaz is the owner of the Mayfair flats,” he said, claiming that this meant her father had laundered the money in her name. he said that they have used ministers, institutions and all other resources to protect themselves.
Talking to media outside the Supreme Court, Awami Muslim League (AML) Chairman Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said that the rulers want confrontation with the army and the judiciary because their ‘theft’ has been proved and the ‘stolen goods’ have yet to be recovered.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sirajul Haq said that the apex court should give verdict as soon as possible in the Panama case instead of prolonging the matter so that corruption could be eliminated completely. He claimed that the ruling party wanted verdict of their own choice by threatening JIT and courts but in fact they were defeated now and their tactics would not work now.
Talking to journalists, PTI founding member Akbar Baber asserted that Imran Khan should be held accountable for corruption in foreign funded accounts that belong to Saudi Arabia and Middle East. He said that PTI’s stance and fake statements regarding corruption cases were meant to harm the structure of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
