Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took great exception to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairperson and deposed prime minister Imran Khan’s comments ‘against state institutions’ and said that action should be taken over his ‘anti-state’ narrative.
Addressing the National Assembly today, PM Shehbaz Sharif said that action should be taken against Khan within the confines of the law. The National Assembly also passed a resolution condemning the PTI chairperson’s statements against the army and judiciary. The resolution was tabled by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi.
Yesterday, during a PTI rally in Abbottabad, Imran Khan had made several bold and thinly veiled comments regarding the military establishment. Narrating the stories of Sirajud Daulah and Mir Jaffar, he compared his government to that of Daulah’s, leading some people to suspect him of likening Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa to Mir Jaffar.
Sirajud Daulah was a Mughal governor who was back-stabbed by his commander-in-chief Mir Jaffar, who had colluded with the British to topple Daulah’s government. Khan claimed that his government had been removed from power through “the Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs of today”.
Addressing those comments during the assembly session today, PM Shehbaz Sharif said that Imran Khan had likened the institutions of Pakistan to Mir Jafir and Mir Sadiq, which was very ‘dangerous and terrifying’.
Shehbaz said that if “aggressive speeches”, such as the one given yesterday by Khan, were not curtailed, the country would fall victim to anarchy.
“You were a favorite of this institute and fed like a baby for three and a half years,” he said. “This core institution has never supported any of the previous prime ministers the way it did Imran Khan Niazi.”
“The poison he spewed about the institution yesterday is a conspiracy against it and Pakistan. If this is not stopped through the law and the Constitution then God forbid this country will become a hideous reflection of Syria and Libya where cities present scenes of graveyards today,” said Shehbaz.
The PM also criticized PTI for failing to meet any of its economic and social goals, and said that if Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had received even 30% of the kind of support that PTI got, the country would have been ‘taking off like a plane right now’.
