LAHORE - Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that case against PAT chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri has been registered on the complaint of a private person and not the government.
According to media report, the CM said that Dr Tahirul while addressing a press conference had passed threatening words and instigated his workers. He said the country is in a state of war and could not afford any chaotic situation. He also blamed Dr Qadri for enjoying bulletproof cars with the money received in charity for the people. He further said that long march issue could be settled through talks. He said he was ready to visit Imran Khan if things could be settled by doing so.
About the allegations that former Punjab caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi favoured the PML-N in 2013 general elections, the CM denied the charges and said Mr Sethi was appointed by former president Asif Ali Zardari.
Meanwhile, addressing his party members from different districts, the CM said they would stay in rule for five years as the PML-N enjoyed mandate of the people. He said the time is over when people used to come to power through backdoors. He also said that what agenda the protesting elements carry now stands exposed to the people. He said the PML-N government came to the power through a democratic process and 180 million people of the country would not let any conspiracy succeed against it.
Meanwhile talking to media in Islamabad, Shahbaz said that people of Pakistan have rejected the politics of protest and ball-tempering of Imran Khan would not be allowed in the country’s politics. He said that Imran Khan had announced in a public meeting at Lahore that he will not tell a lie in future but after that, he set historic records of telling lie. He said Imran Khan claimed that Rs70 billion have been spent on Metro Bus project. He said that if Rs35 billion were spent instead of Rs30 billion on this project, he is ready to resign.
The CM said that Imran Khan congratulated him on winning elections on phone but after one year, the PTI head has started raising hue and cry of so-called rigging. He said that a PTI leader, Asad Umar while congratulating PML-N on winning elections at TV channels, had said that Imran Khan is a sportsman and he knows to accept his defeat. He lamented that Imran Khan neither proved to be a good politician nor a sportsman.
Shahbaz Sharif said that the doors of government are open for dialogue and he is ready to visit Imran Khan’s residence. He said the nation asks Imran Khan that on the one hand he raises slogan against corruption while on the other he wants to launch a movement with the support of those political elements who had made Punjab a den of corruption during their tenure. He said that it was that era when a dacoity of Rs70 billion was committed in Punjab Bank, loans of billions of rupees of the banks were got waived off and Transparency International declared Punjab as the corrupt province. Does Imran Khan want to bring similar corrupt government in Punjab, he questioned. He said that the memory of the people is not short as they fully remembered that Imran Khan declared those people by mentioning their names as the biggest thieves of Pakistani politics.
Shahbaz said that as far as Tahirul Qadri is concerned, he does not want to comment about such a person who tells lie on Holy Quran. He said that the PTI leadership wanted to hide its poor performance in KPK through the politics of protests.
He termed the performance of KP government as worst in all sectors including law and order, health, education, transport and said that international institutions have also seconded. It is lamentable that Imran Khan has always remained disassociated from the problems and difficulties of people during worst flooding, dengue virus in Punjab and sufferings of IDPs, he added. He said that Imran instead of sharing the miseries of IDPs during his visit to Bannu, has been raising hue and cry about so-called rigging before the media.