Won't give NRO come hell or high water, says PM Imran as Azadi March continues

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday lashed out at his political opponents who have gathered in Islamabad with hordes of supporters as part of the Azadi March led by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

"I will not give them an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance), come hell or high water," said the prime minister while addressing a gathering in Gilgit-Baltistan. 

The prime minister, who had set up a seven-member  government committee to hold talks with opposition ahead of the march,  targeted  Rehman,  Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and Mehmood Khan Achakzai in his speech.

He said the PML-N and PPP "know nothing" about Azadi March and that JUI-F's Rehman would  offer  only one justification that "the march is against the Jews".

He said "the Jews don't need to hatch conspiracies in the presence of Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

"And somebody like Mehmood Khan Achakzai ... what is he doing in Azadi March," he said of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) leader.

Without naming anyone, he said that two sons of  a former prime minister were involved in "corruption worth billion of rupees".

"And when  they are questioned about their corruption, they say they are not Pakistani citizens," said the prime minister.

 The premier, in an apparent reference to the PML-N leadership and their family, said that "they have failed to show even a single piece of paper  to prove their innocence."

"And the flat which I had bought abroad, the Supreme Court  held me accountable for 10 months," he added.

The prime minister said he has waged a struggle for 22  years but his opponents think that he could be pressured into giving an NRO, an acronym for National Reconciliation Ordinance and a term which he often uses to refer to political  compromises.

"I will send you to jails ," he warned, accusing his opponents  of stealing the money and parking those funds in foreign banks.