Daily Times

PMLN President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif has termed PM Imran Khan a security risk for the country.

Responding to Imran’s television address, Shehbaz said Niazi had brought Pakistan into the cross-hairs in a desperate attempt to hang on to the power. “Once Imran gets done with his speech, he should concentrate on getting the 172 members in the parliament because that’s the only thing that matters,” he said.

The PMLN president said Imran’s incompetence, corruption and arrogance had only caused economic, social and foreign policy crisis in the country. He stressed that in his desperation and frustration, Niazi was damaging diplomatic relation of Pakistan which was why it was imperative that he should be banned from delivering these catastrophic speeches. Shehbaz once again pointed out that to this day Niazi had not shown the letter to the parliament and the people, and was only sharing select contents of the document and his perception of them. “Not showing the letter means there is no letter, Imran Niazi is once again telling a new lie as he usually does”, Shehbaz said.

After Imran’s false narrative of corruption, lies about building a mirror image of Riyasat-e-Madina, this conspiracy letter was the latest false narrative to save his sinking ship, he said. Imran needs to realize that he won’t be able to fool the nation as the people of Pakistan had rejected him and every single one of his lies, he added.

“Imran ranted 2 hours about the letter at the public meeting and one hour on television address about a letter that does not exist. It was a diplomatic cable that Imran is representing as a threat letter of conspiracy to save his disastrous rule”, he said.

Separately, he said that the NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri once again failed to follow the constitutional procedure by calling the debate session on the no-confidence motion off.

Addressing a press conference flanked by other joint Opposition leaders, including PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Shahbaz said that when the deputy speaker saw that the members of the Parliament wanted to vote against the premier, “he ran away.”

He further said that the entire nation saw that 172 Opposition members were present in the house, however, the deputy speaker did not allow the voting. “The whole country is shocked, including the judiciary,” he maintained. Today, as per the agenda of the National Assembly, a debate session was to be held on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan after which – according to the law – the speaker has to hold voting within four days.

The Opposition leader further added that he, along with Bilawal, went to the NA secretary after the deputy speaker adjourned the session till April 3. “The secretary informed us that the decision regarding not holding the debate related to the no-confidence motion was taken by the deputy speaker,” Shahbaz said.

‘Finishing line is near’

Shahbaz questioned: “Does this “selected” prime minister have any constitutional or ethical justification left?”

He further added that the Opposition had decided not to take extreme measures which are against the law, adding that all members of the joint Opposition showed the Imran Khan-led government that his time is over and the “finishing line is near.”

Addressing the government’s allegations against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif regarding his involvement in “foreign conspiracy”, Shahbaz said that the people of Pakistan are “ashamed” of the word used by the premier.

“He [Imran Khan] stooped to the lowest level of impropriety by levelling baseless allegations against Nawaz, accusing him of having contacted Israeli intelligence agencies and inviting them to get involved in national matters of Pakistan,” he said. At this, the Opposition leader questioned the premier regarding PTI’s foreign funding donors.

He said that according to the law regarding foreign funding, “you cannot take funds from foreign donors no matter what their religion or nationality is.”

“Your donors include Israelis and Indians, and you did not even declare your funds before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP),” he added.