PM Abbasi says people to decide whether Nawaz is eligible or not

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The decision pertaining to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s eligibility lies with people instead of the accountability court and the people do not endorse the court’s decision, said Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday.

In an interview with a private outlet on Monday, the PM said cases against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari were framed during late Farooq Leghari’s tenure, not by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

Responding to another query, he said whenever the domain of executive was encroached upon, it had weakened its functioning.

He said the executive and judiciary had separate domains and relevant laws existed in this regard, while insisting that these domains required interpretation over the exercise of authority and responsibility.

The prime minister said the attorney general often raised such points before the courts. “The judgments should speak for themselves,” he added.

He said a parliamentary oversight was required over the nomination of judges of the superior judiciary as it was a worldwide practice.

The current one was a formality and the parliamentary body had no powers to overrule a nomination, he said and suggested that the judicial system in the country should take lead in this regard.

About the holding of National Security Committee’s meetings, he said these enabled civilian and military leadership to understand the critical issues leading to consensus.

To another question, he said Nawaz Sharif was thrice elected as prime minister and being the most responsible person, he understood the national issues.

The prime minister said a debate was required in the country over topics like the performance of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

About import of LNG from Qatar, he said all the relevant documents were available on Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and PCO websites. The government had broken the hold of oil mafia that was the reason behind its criticism, he opined.

To a question about the Pakistan-US ties, the PM said there were no reality in the tweets. He regretted that Pakistan was blamed for every issue in Afghanistan. The fact was that terrorists from the Afghan soil attacked Pakistan.

“Pakistan has fought a successful war on terrorism and cleared all the sanctuaries. Terror attacks had reduced in the country,” he said. “We fought the war for ourselves and the world. Pakistan is an ally of the world in this fight and not its opponent,” he stressed.

The prime minister said they had always remained engaged with Washington. The war was no solution to Afghan issue as it could be resolved through dialogue.

He said now the ground reality was that Afghan government’s writ had weakened and a major part of the country was under the control of anti-government forces or Taliban. Pakistan was ready to facilitate the negotiation efforts.

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