LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry has said that politics is defined as trekking forward after looking into each other’s arguments, adding that the way the government was moving forward had given rise to a big crisis in the country.“You are so afraid that you are distancing yourself from elections and all eyes are on the Supreme Court,” he said while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club along with PTI Secretary General Asad Umar.
Fawad said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gave an poor response to President Dr Arif Alvi’s letter written within the constitutional provisions. Alvi had, earlier, asked the PM to direct the concerned authorities to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in line with the Supreme Court’s order for holding elections to avoid any complication, including contempt of court.
Fawad said the way the PM had responded to the president’s letter was enough to show how low a man he was.
He said hundreds of thousands of people rejected the tactics being employed by the fascist government at the PTI’s Minar-e-Pakistan rally on Saturday night, adding the entire country was standing besides PTI chief Imran Khan. “All ways leading to Minar-e-Pakistan were blocked using containers and we cannot find an similarity to this government’s oppression,” he added.
He alluded that he had not witnessed a worse treatment of political workers, adding that women were being harassed inside their homes. “We cannot tolerate such ill-treatment,” he added.
He went on to say that so far six persons had died in the pursuit of subsidised flour bags, imploring where they [the government] had brought this country to. “The incumbent government will drag down the country to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list again,” he added. Oil prices have decreased in the international market, he said, but they increased in Pakistan.
Fawad insisted there was no way in Pakistan except for implementing the Constitution. He added that notices are being handed out by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).
Fawad, flanked by PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, claimed that 2,000 people were arrested in the ongoing wave of arrests of his party’s workers. “People are being picked and rendered missing from Lahore. Azhar Mashwani went missing. It has been three days.”
The politician asserted that there was no room for enforced disappearances in Pakistan.
During the presser, the former information minister accused Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah of “operating a gang” while questioning him about his politics.
Asad Umar said there would be no space for democracy in the country if the country was run the way it was being run, adding that next week would be decisive in the country’s history. “The country has no longer a judiciary of the 1950s and everyone will see the judiciary defending the country,” he added, local media reported.
Asad Umar claimed that the people of Lahore came out despite fear, arrests and containers placed across the city. “The coming week will be the turning point in Pakistan’s history,” the PTI leader said.
Slamming the government for mishandling the country’s economy and the nation’s sufferings which have followed, Umar said that people are losing their lives while standing in line to get flour.
He warned the government on people’s reaction to their performance. “They know what people will do to them.”
He said that a case was lodged against Hassaan Niazi in Lahore after being commuted to Quetta, adding they [the government] were taking the country to destruction.
“People came out on their own for the PTI’s rally on Saturday night and they did not do so for Imran Khan,” he added. Fascism was, he said, was at its peak in the country.
