Imran playing dangerous game: PM

LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday said Imran Khan was playing a dangerous game by using senior journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing for petty politics and casting aspersions on the state institutions.

“Imran Niazi is playing a dangerous game. He is using the tragic killing of Arshad Sharif for petty politics and going to the extent of casting aspersions on state institutions,” he wrote on Twitter, prior to concluding his visit to Saudi Arabia where he attended an investment summit, offered Umrah and paid respects at Roza-e-Rasool.

The prime minister urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman to be patient and wait for findings of judicial commission instead of levelling baseless allegations.

On Tuesday, the prime minister had decided that Arshad Sharif’s killing in Kenya would be probed by a judicial commission and the government would request the Islamabad High Court to appoint a judge for the purpose. He also assured the nation of a transparent probe into the tragic incident and bringing forth the facts to the nation.

Separately, PMLN supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Imran Khan’s long march was not for any revolution but to install an army chief of his choice. In a tweet on Wednesday, he said people had witnessed Imran’s so-called revolution in his four-year rule, adding that Imran Khan, who called others thieves, himself proved to be the biggest thief in history with irrefutable evidence of foreign funding, Toshakhana and robbery of Rs50 billion.

Various leaders of ruling alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) sharply reacted to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s long march plans, saying he wanted to create anarchy in the country.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman termed PTI’s long march a ‘short march’ which Imran Khan would conduct from Lahore to Islamabad. “If their Imran Bachao Movement is so popular, show it by marching from Karachi to Islamabad, like the PPP. I had challenged the PTI that they cannot do a long march like the PPP,” she said while commenting on announcement of Imran Khan about the long march.

“Imran Khan knows people don’t want to be a part of his politics of anarchy as May 25 and October 21, people rejected the call of Tehreek-e-Inteshar [campaign for creating division] by not coming out. Imran Khan will fail this time too,” she said.

Federal Minister Mian Javed Latif Wednesday said that long march was aimed only to create unrest in the country as Khan wanted to regain power at all costs. The PTI government could not launch any public welfare project during its four-year tenure, he told a private news channel.

He said if anyone would be found violating the law, action would be taken without any discrimination. To a question about the by-election results, he said anti-state mindset groups were supporting Imran’s party to fulfil their sinister designs in the country. He said the PMLN would sweep the general elections.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) spokesman Muhammad Aslam Ghauri said the government would ensure safety of people’s lives and property during the march. Talking to APP on Wednesday, he said it was PTI chief Imran Khan’s legal right to take out the march, but it should be within the constitutional parameters.

The JUIF spokesman said that Imran Khan would not be allowed to play with future of the country like the past.

He said that the national leadership and coalition government had saved the nation from ‘tsunami of destruction’ in the past and would do so in the future. He said the PTI chief was trying to damage the country’s economy through petty political tactics in a bid to get in power again from backdoor channels and with the help of non-state actors.

Separately, Awami National Party (ANP) leader and former provincial minister Wajid Ali Khan said Imran Khan had given the long march call to raise his sagging political image in the eyes of people, after the unanimous verdict of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the Toshakhana case.

“The country is going through difficult times and can’t afford agitation politics such as long marches and sit-ins of the PTI,” he told APP. Wajid said the PTI chief’s Friday long march would “face the same fate as that of the previous flopped long marches as it lacked direction and purpose”.