Daily Times

CHINIOT: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday asked country’s prime minister to stop criticizing Senate as well as its members and instead disclose details of his recent meeting with the chief justice of Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference here, PPP North Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira hit back at Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for cricitising the newly elected members and chairman of the Upper House over horse-trading allegations. He regretted that the ruling party after targeting the judiciary and armed forces was now criticising the Senate.”Sensing its defeat in the upcoming general elections, PML-N has launched a propaganda campaign against state institutions,” he said.

Slamming PM Abbasi, the PPP leader said the people looked towards him as their premier while he himself called a disqualified person his prime minister. He said Abbasi met the chief justice to ask for concessions for his party leader while he claims that he took the people’s complaints to the country’s top judge. He asked the premier to spell out what were the complaints. He said according to the chief justice the premier visited him to ask for ‘something’.”Why did you [PM] go to the chief justice, please tell us. You say you went as a faryadi. What faryad did you share with the CJP?” he said.

The PPP leader remarked that if the premier is so helpless, he should just resign. “There is a lot of confusion in the government. Nawaz wants to be the only one calling the shots,” he said.

Criticising the former prime minister, Kaira said that Nawaz Sharif lied while speaking in the National Assembly about his assets. “Supreme Court’s verdict states that Nawaz Sharif is a liar,” he said.

Kaira said the former premier wanted to hurt the country’s political system by maligning the judiciary and armed forces. He said NAB references were instituted against Sharif for committing corruption. He said the corruption charges levelled against Nawaz were not about whether he had property in his name or not, but about the assets owned by his children and the flow of money used to buy pricey properties abroad. “There is sufficient evidence on the record against the PML-N supreme leader and the court will soon hand down a decision against him,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, April 2^nd 2018.