Daily Times

SUKKUR: Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah said on Saturday that Imran Khan should comply with orders of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Talking to journalists, he said that Imran Khan was following double standards by demanding Nawaz Sharif to accept the Supreme Court decision, but he himself had not appeared before the ECP.

“The PPP wants the government to complete its term. It is the democratic right of every political party to choose their own opposition leader,” he said. “It is good that MQM and PTI are getting close to each other,” he said.

Khursheed criticized Imran Khan, saying that while he taught others to respect and obey court orders, he himself disregarded the directions of both the courts and the ECP.

He also claimed that the PPP’s performance in Sindh had been much better than PTI’s in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking about the appointment of a new National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to replace Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, whose term ends in November, Khursheed Shah said that no decision has been taken yet.

He said that both the government and the opposition want to select someone ‘competent’ for the position.

The PPP leader had met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi at the official residence of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Wednesday.

However, he reiterated his ‘advice’ that the government’s tenure be reduced to four years instead of five, claiming that all political parties agreed on the proposal. He also urged the Sharif family and PML-N leadership to accept the court’s decision instead of staying in a state of denial.

Khursheed also said that Sardar Latif Khosa would file an appeal in the high court against the court’s decision on the Benazir Bhutto assassination case within three to four days.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also criticised the PTI chief on Saturday during a press talk in Sukkur. Murad called Khan a “naive politician” and advised him to learn the “art of politics”.

“He will [soon] learn politics like he learnt cricket,” Murad said. Talking about the reappointment of Inspector General (IG) AD Khawaja, Murad said that though the PPP government was abiding by the verdict of the Sindh High Court, it would soon challenge the court’s decision as it had serious reservations over it.

However, he denied there was any political tussle between the IG and the Sindh government.

“We have the democratic right to discuss issues over which we have any reservations,” he said. “This issue was raised by media and the media will take it forward. We have reservations over it and will impugn judgement in apex court as we are consulting legal [counsel] in this regard,” he added.

He claimed that law and order situation in Sindh was better than other provinces and echoed Khursheed Shah by saying that Sindh government was performing better than KPK. Murad maintained that the provincial government was still clear about the results of the population census.

Published in Daily Times, September 17^th 2017.