LAHORE: For the first time since the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on July 28, the Sharif family publicly said on Tuesday that initiation of a treason case against former dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government was the reason behind his ouster.
Mr
Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz also continued their tirade
against the judiciary for what they described as an “unjust” decision
against the former and vowed to struggle for the restoration of “justice
and respect of ballot”.
Mr Sharif also asked if any
court would dare bring Musharraf to justice. “Will we see any court hold
Musharraf accountable for his crimes?” he asked and responded to his
own question, saying: “I am hopeful one day this will happen.”
He
was speaking at the PML-N social media convention in Model Town here.
“We got a treason case registered against Musharraf for abrogating the
Constitution. But his case is still pending and a verdict came in my
case in haste,” Mr Sharif said.
Ousted PM claims his campaign is not against judiciary, but for ‘restoration of justice’
Explaining the reasons of her father’s ouster, Ms Maryam
said: “When he (Nawaz) got registered a case against Musharraf, sit-ins
(PTI and PAT Islamabad sit-ins in 2014) began against him. Then came the
News Leaks and Panama Papers case and finally he was disqualified on an
Iqama (work permit). This happened to my father because he did not bow.
It was easy for him to choose an easy path but he didn’t.”
The focus of Mr Sharif’s speech was the judiciary which he said had shown “double standards” in his and PTI chairman Imran Khan’s cases.
“In
this country the scales of justice should be equal for everyone. An
elected prime minister is disqualified for not withdrawing a salary from
the company of his son while Imran Khan got a preferential treatment
from the court despite declaring his offshore company. They (judges)
even declared the ‘ladla’ (favourite) Sadiq and Ameen and let him off
the hook. It is a strange phenomenon in the country that someone’s
offshore companies are legitimate and someone’s are illegitimate.”
He
said fair trial was the right of every person as he was innocent till
proven guilty. “But here I am not given the right to appeal (in court).”
The former premier explained that his campaign was not
against the judiciary but for the “restoration of justice” in the
country. “Our opponents are accusing us of running an anti-judiciary
drive which is wrong. In fact time has come to lift the flag of
restoration of justice in the country. The courts in the past had
welcomed dictators and even Musharraf was allowed to make changes to the
Constitution unconstitutionally. We have to change this. We will make
achieving of ‘real justice’ a basic part of our manifesto in the next
election,” he said, adding that his party would not leave the ground
till its drive for restoration of justice was achieved.
Mr
Sharif said Rs10 corruption had not been proved against him. “They did
not disqualify me on corruption as nothing against me was proved. This
is not justice but a joke. They made a mockery of the country. We have
come out to stop this game being played for the last 70 years.”
Mr
Sharif took on Imran Khan for calling him a coward. “I am not a coward.
I had come out from home for restoration of judges in 2009 despite
threats to my life while Imran was hiding in Rawalpindi. Imran was
always looking for the support of the umpire and the courts to oust me.
Now I want to tell him... that he will be clean bowled in the 2018
election by the PML-N.”
Mr Sharif said that his brother
Shahbaz stood by him to meet the challenges after coming to power in
2013. “We controlled loadshedding and terrorism. We worked hard to
complete those projects which had been left incomplete for the last 20
years.”
He regretted that the wheel of progress in the
country had stopped after his disqualification. “After my
disqualification the stock market index which is a barometer of progress
has come down from 54,000 to 38,000.”
Moved by the
enthusiasm of the PML-N activists present there, the ousted premier said
this passion would fail the designs of the PML-N opponents. “If this
passion remains till elections we will have a historic victory,” Mr
Sharif said and took a pledge from them to spread the ideology of Nawaz
Sharif which he said was “democracy, respect of ballot and justice”.