Daily Times

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday warned the ousted premier and PTI Chairman Imran Khan not to cross limits by giving statements about split of the country.

“Do your politics, but don’t dare cross limits and talk about division of Pakistan,” he said in a tweet from Turkey, where he is on a three-day official visit.

In a recent interview, Imran said that the country could descend into civil war and divide if the general elections were not announced.

PM Sharif mentioned that as he was making accords with Turkey aimed at bringing prosperity to Pakistan, the PTI chief was issuing threats against Pakistan.

“While I am in Turkey inking agreements, Imran Niazi is making naked threats against the country,” he said in a tweet.

The prime minister said the interviews and statements of Imran Khan exposed that he was not suitable for public office. “If at all any proof was needed that Niazi is unfit for public office, his latest interview suffices,” he said. In a separate statement shared on the PML-N’s Twitter, the premier said Imran’s remarks were proof that the PTI chief was “involved in a conspiracy, not politics”. He said Imran was spreading “chaos” due to his “frustration and sick mentality”, and that his statement was similar to those of Pakistan’s enemies. “This is not a statement but a conspiracy to spark the fire of anarchy and division in the country,” PM Shehbaz said.

“Losing power does not mean that you wage a war against Pakistan, its unity and its institutions,” he said, warning Imran not to “attack” the federation and country’s institutions. “Don’t exceed the limits [defined] by the law and Constitution.”

The prime minister said the nation would not accept such “nefarious” plans at any cost and would not let them succeed. He vowed to defeat such “impure” aims.

Earlier, PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari also condemned Imran’s remarks in a late-night statement shared on his party’s Twitter.

“No one can talk about fragmenting Pakistan. This is not that language of a Pakistani but that of [Indian PM] Modi,” he said.

“Imran Khan, power is not everything in this world. Be brave and learn to do politics standing on your own feet,” Zardari berated the PTI chief, saying that the “wish of dividing this country into three pieces cannot be realised until we and our future generations live”.

He concluded his statement by saying that “God willing, Pakistan will survive till the Day of Judgement”.

The statement said Zardari had instructed the PPP to protest Imran’s “impure statement”.

In his condemnation in a series of tweets, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said Pakistan’s nuclear programme was “safer in the hands of those” who started it and carried out nuclear tests – a reference to his party, the PML-N, which leads the incumbent coalition government.

He demanded Imran to elaborate on what right decisions the “army” needed to make.

The minister said the “incompetent PTI’s policy of hate, revenge and division had brought the country on the brink of destruction” and alleged that Imran had been “conspiring against democracy since 2011 to come to power”.

He said Imran should improve his “manners, behaviour, language and character before advising the army”. Rafique said Imran should leave behind the “agenda of anarchy and hate” and “learn to become a part of the political community before addressing the judiciary and army”.

“The day political parties become capable of devising a national agenda, the limit of institutions would be automatically defined,” the minister said. “Pakistan, God willing, will remain united. [And] the role of political leadership, judiciary, army and media is important in keeping the country stable,” the minister said.