Daily Times

LAHORE: Referring to the dismissal of review petitions filed by the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the aftermath of the Panama Papers case by the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan called it the first example of justice served against an influential and corrupt family.

Imran Khan, while expressing his opposition to the ‘biased’ role of the chairmen of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) who he alleged had been favouring the Sharif family, suggested that they should be appointed by the Supreme Court to prevent corruption.

Talking to the media on Friday, Kaptaan, as Imran is commonly known to his followers, said that despite the Sharif family’s efforts to pressurise courts through political tactics and rallies such as the Grand Trunk Road rally held after the former premier’s disqualification, the Supreme Court had succeeded in delivering justice.

The PTI chairman also alleged that the Sharif family had always abused power through the misuse of public offices and institutions to suppress political opponents. He further alleged that the family’s motivation to stay in power was to protect themselves from judicial trials.

Imran also claimed that the disqualified premier had always appointed his own loyalists to delay the proceedings of NAB references against him and now aimed to remove the SC judge appointed to monitor the latest NAB references against the Sharif family in cases like the Panama Papers case and Hudaibiya Papers Mills case.

Talking about the recently issued arrest warrant for him by the ECP, Imran alleged that the organisation was a weapon of the ‘mafia’ that was being used only for harassing him and his party, since it had never issued an arrest warrant for anyone before. He also said that he would approach the SC to deal with this issue. He also alleged that he was blackmailed by the ECP at the behest of the ruling Sharifs.

Commenting over the upcoming by-election in NA-120, Imran said that ever since justice was served against the Sharifs, people were no longer afraid of their ‘goons’ and stand by the courts of justice.

Published in Daily Times, September 16^th 2017.