ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal on Monday accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of “attacking” the judiciary during the telethon on Sunday.
Speaking outside the accountability court in Islamabad, he claimed that the prime minister was unable to carry out his mission because the judiciary was not cooperating with him.
“He wants the courts to put the opposition leaders into jails despite the fact that no corruption reference has so far been filed in the courts with concrete evidence,” he declared.
He appealed to the media houses to broadcast hearing of corruption cases live to the people so that truth could be separated from falsehood.
Iqbal regretted that the country had sunk deep into the mire of loans. “Imran borrowed more loans in the past two years than what we had borrowed in our entire tenure,” he said and added: “He borrowed loans to bridge the deficit. Since then our financial autonomy is at stake. This was the trap our enemies had laid for us. And now in lieu of these loans, we have put the autonomy of our institutions at stake.”
The former minister further questioned as to which were the projects, which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had initiated in its tenure. “These are the projects launched when PML-N was in power, which are being completed now. The truth of the matter is that even still the incumbent government has failed to complete most of the projects initiated in our era.”
He asked as to who was responsible for Khan’s “incompetence”. “Three years have passed and the ‘selected’ prime minister has failed to find a suitable finance minister,” he said.
He taunted the prime minister for claiming that he [Imran] had prepared a “dream team” to run the country. “This is the ‘dream team’ that you have gathered around you. These are all turncoats,” he said.
The PML-N leader appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice of an allegation levelled against him of receiving Rs70 billion in kickbacks in the Sukkur-Multan motorway project.
“If I have received the kickback, take action against me; or otherwise put an end to my character assassination,” he said.
Iqbal was of the view that Khan could not hide his “incompetence” by levelling baseless charges against his political opponents.
He regretted that the PTI government had slashed the budget allocated for the Higher Education Commission (HEC). “This government is ruining the country by destroying each and every institution,” he alleged.
Iqbal wondered as to when those who brought PTI to power would say “enough is enough.”
He said that if all opposition parties had gathered on one platform, the government could not last even 10 days. “Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is alive, and is continuing its mission,” he said. “The goal this alliance of opposition parties has set for itself is to run the country in the light of the constitution.”
