LONDON– In a statement to the media on Sunday in London, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan a “liar from head to toe.”
Following his meeting with Hamza Yusuf, the Scottish First Minister, the PM made the remarks. According to PM Shehbaz, the Pakistani government was organizing an investment conference. The conference would discuss cooperation in trade, education, and technical education. The PTI government’s accusations against PM Shehbaz Sharif were addressed as well, and he claimed that they were false.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called out former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar for being an “agent” of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), claiming that he served Imran Khan-led party as an activist during his tenure at the Supreme Court.
The premier claimed that the audio leak of ex-CJP’s son Najam Saqib implicates him in a conspiracy to bring PTI chief Khan to power.
The son of the former chief justice was heard speaking to a PTI candidate, Abuzar Chadhar, regarding issuance of party tickets for the upcoming Punjab elections.
PM Shehbaz’s comments came while talking to journalists in London where he is currently on a visit due to his attendance for the coronation of King Charles III. The prime minister also met his brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif during his visit.
The premier said that Nisar had played a key role in the disqualification of the PML-N supremo on completely baseless and false allegations and ran a vindictive campaign against their party in order to bring Khan into power through a rigged election he presided over.
PM Shehbaz said ex-top judge of the apex court used suo motu notices for his personal and political interests and not for public interest.
The prime minister added that the audio leak of the former CJP’s son is a proof that a conspiracy was hatched to bring the PTI chief to power in which Nisar himself was also involved.
He further stated that the House committee had called the ex-chief justice and his son to answer questions about their involvement in the sale of tickets for Rs120 million.
PM Shehbaz said that elections in the country will take place on the same day and parliament will assert its supremacy at all costs.
“Elections will take place on one day. In Punjab, in the past, there was a wrong impression that it is the big brother of the provinces. All provinces are equal. Conducting elections in Punjab on one day is not in Pakistan’s interest,” he said.
The premier added that the parliament’s constitutional rights will be protected and it has one voice on this matter.
“There is no doubt that parliament, within its limits, will assert its authority. The whole parliament stands united. Parliament will get itself asserted within its legal remit,” he asserted.
Moreover, PM Shehbaz also slammed the PTI for creating “controversy” around Pakistan’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) moot in India, adding that for the Khan-led party “everything” is a “plaything”.
“It is deeply troubling how the PTI tried to generate controversy around Pakistan’s participation in the SCO meeting in India,” the premier tweeted a day after Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari returned from India.
However, the prime minister said that it was not “surprising” as his predecessor “had no qualms about imperiling the country’s vital foreign policy interests in the past”.
“This is what they did when they were in power. For the PTI, everything —including the conduct of interstate relations — is a plaything,” tweeted the premier.
FM Bilawal visited the Indian city, Goa, to attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFMs) meeting.
The visit was hailed by former diplomats, foreign policy analysts, scholars and experts as it marked the first time in more than a decade that a Pakistan foreign minister had visited the neighbouring country.
However, PTI was not very welcoming to the idea of a Pakistani foreign minister visiting India and was critical of Bilawal’s actions during his trip.
Reacting to the PM’s tweet, PTI leader Andleeb Abbas termed the prime minister’s tweet “ironic”.
“Washington Post expose of Discord Leaks revealed his dangerous tilt towards US in the war between Ukraine and Russia was revealed imperiling relations with China and Russia. No denial of this leak. Foreign policy Mr PM is not just 7-day vacation in UK on taxpayers’ expense,” Abbas wrote on Twitter.
