LAHORE: Railways Minister Saad Rafique said that Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) respects judiciary and will always bow their heads before the institution on Saturday.
“If Imran Khan or Sheikh Rasheed had said this, we would have considered it political rivalry, but a Court likened us to the Sicilian mafia, which is a criminal organisation,” Rafique complained in an address to a gathering of the party workers in Lahore. The minister said that the party will always rebut these accusations.
He implored the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), probing the Sharif’s financial dealings abroad, to question itself whether it is trying to unearth the truth or just wandering aimlessly. It is pertinent to mention here that the JIT, formed on May 6 in light of the Supreme Court’s April 20 judgment in the Panama case, was given 60 days to complete its probe.
However, since the original deadline was falling on a Friday, and with the JIT taking a day off on Eid, July 10 has been decided as the deadline to submit its final report. Addressing his political opponents, Saad said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan might not want to indulge in politics of abuse and accusations but his close aides are advising him to do so.
Imran should learn the lessons that the PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) learnt after decades of rivalry, he added. The minister said that his party would not stoop to the level of the PTI leaders and its young workers who do not realise the decades of hard work and sacrifices political leaders gave for democracy.
Mentioning examples from the past, he said that the elected leaders have always been removed by “unconventional means”. “Why that is whenever the PML-N is in power due to popular vote, there are attempts to remove it through unconventional means. “People might disagree with our politics but even our opponents can’t deny we fought against civil and military dictatorships,” Saad said.
Meanwhile, PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi in response to Saad Rafique’s press conference said that the PML-N is in worried as the date of the final JIT report is nearing, while they had distributed sweets on the date of the JIT’s formation. Rubbishing concerns that there will be a crisis if the prime minister is dismissed, Qureshi said that a new PM can be chosen or fresh elections can be called after dissolving the assemblies.
He claimed that it is not him or his party but the masses who want to get rid of corrupt rulers.
