Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, who had recently criticised the party leadership for turning a blind eye to public issues and ignoring workers, has announced stepping down from the party post.

Announcing his resignation on Twitter, he demanded of his party-led federal government to immediately hold elections in the country. “Let the people decide the country’s fate,” he remarked. A day earlier at a media briefing after a gathering of party workers, Mehtab criticised the inflated federal cabinet consisting of 80 ministers and advisers, terming them a burden on the national exchequer.

“Politicians and the establishment are equally responsible for the current fiasco prevailing in the country,” he said.

Commenting on the current political scenario in the country, Sardar Mehtab said that the PML-N government was equally responsible for the current political and economic malaise. “It is a common practice that after winning elections and coming to power, parliamentarians become stooges of the establishment,” he said and asked the International Monetary Fund to bind the government to share details of all loans taken and expenditures incurred during the last 20 years so that the responsibility could be fixed. Sardar Mehtab said that all political parties were responsible for the current dangerous situation facing the country. He said that party supremo Nawaz Sharif is the only symbol of unity for the party and the country whereas the current party leadership has its own agenda and objective “which is totally different from the vision of Nawaz Sharif.” He advised the workers to warmly welcome Maryam Nawaz Sharif during her visit to the Hazara division as she is the daughter of Nawaz Sharif. Earlier, former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also confirmed that he has resigned as party senior vice president because of Maryam Nawaz. Party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam was promoted to the position of party’s senior vice president in January – a position she would have shared together with Abbasi upon her return to Pakistan after three months’ absence.