PDM will oust PTI’s ‘incompetent govt’: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

KARACHI: Announcing that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s central leader Maryam Nawaz will address the October 18 rally of the opposition parties in Karachi, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday that the opposition parties were united under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement to oust the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s incompetent government.

He was addressing a PML-N Sindh’s public gathering in Karachi’s SITE Industrial Area to mark the anniversary of the overthrow of the party’s elected government by General Pervez Musharraf.

The PML-N leaders in the gathering vowed all-out support for the party’s participation in the PDM for supremacy of law and Constitution in the country. Abbasi said that the PDM will bring a political revolution in the country and topple the current incompetent government and would bring change as it would leave no option other than fresh elections.

“Only the narrative of party supremo Nawaz Sharif can bring back the country on the track of development and progress,” he said. “People are suffering every day and each passing day is increasing their problems. The economy has collapsed,” said Abbasi, who is also the PML-N’s central vice-president. The PML-N leader said that treason cases have been registered against half of the country’s politicians.

While criticizing Imran Khan, he said that if a case can be registered against the opposition leaders, then a case can also be registered against the prime minister. The model of governance which was introduced in 2018 had failed badly, he said.

He recalled that General Musharraf had unconstitutionally usurped power and got PML-N leader Nawz Sharif arrested on October 12, 1999.

“We didn’t forget October 12, at that time we were jailed, today we are visiting courts,” Abbasi said. He said that the PML-N’s then elected government in 2013 initiated an operation and brought peace in the city.

PML-N’s central secretary general Ahsan Iqbal said that ‘Naya Pakistan’ has weakened the country and sold Kashmir out. “And now Imran Khan has started distributing certificates of treason.”

Accusing the government of having ruined the country’s economy through its incompetence and pro-elite policies, Iqbal said that the ruling PTI had promised a new Pakistan but the people today were yearning for the “old Pakistan”.

Earlier, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday that if the opposition leaders can be booked for treason, then the government should also be booked for flouting the constitution.

Speaking to the journalists after his hearing at an accountability court in Karachi, Abbasi commented it seemed that the government had diverted its campaign against its opponents from corruption to treason. “The numbers of treason cases have been surpassing the corruption cases and the whole country is suffering from it,” he said. “I also want to lodge a case against [prime minister] Imran Khan for flouting the constitution. Will they [authorities] register it?”

He said that the National Accountability Bureau had been reduced to a tool to bash opponents. “Even the top courts have given observation against the efficiency of the anti-graft watchdog. The government cannot handle NAB, how would it manage the country.”

Meanwhile, the accountability court-III adjourned the hearing of graft case against Abbasi and three others till November 2. The court will record the statement of a prosecution witness against the accused on the next hearing.