ISLAMABAD - The ruling PML-N yesterday accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of targeting the army for ‘cheap politics’ as the war of words between the arch rivals gets bitter.
Earlier, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had alleged PML-N was engaged in doing ‘Changa Manga politics’, buying people and bribing them to stay in power.
He had further alleged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had tried to bribe former army chief General Asif Nawaz by offering him a new BMW car. The deceased general led the Pak Army from August 16, 1991, to January 8, 1993.
When General Nawaz died suddenly after a heart attack in January 1993, there were allegations of arsenic poisoning. Begum Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif received anonymous letters at Nawaz Sharif’s Raiwind house, alleging special cloth was used to polish plates on which the chief was served refreshments. Though Asif Nawaz’s body was exhumed and an inquiry held by US forensic experts, these allegations could not be substantiated.
Imran Khan said a BMW car was parked outside a former army chief’s residence, however, its keys were returned. Almost immediately, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s House declared Imran Khan’s statement as baseless and unfounded. He advised the PTI chief to refrain from involving a former army chief in his ‘politics of lies.’
Addressing a news conference, PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz regretted Imran Khan was targeting national institutions, including army, for the sake of his ‘cheap’ politics. He said the PTI chief should apologise to the nation for his ‘baseless allegation’ that the prime minister had tried to gift a BMW car to General Asif Nawaz.
It is claimed when General Asif Nawaz was apprised of the rumours that the Ittefaq Group was distributing BMW cars as gifts from Nawaz Sharif’s father Mian Sharif to cultivate gullible generals, the army chief confronted Nawaz Sharif who did not deny the allegation; rather he offered the keys of a new BMW car to Asif Nawaz, urging him not to keep driving his old Toyota Corona as it was not ‘befitting’ for the chief. Asif Nawaz politely returned the keys and walked away.
He said the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government invested Rs 378 million in stock market instead of spending the amount on electricity projects.
He alleged the KP government drew Rs 538 million from hydropower fund of the province, but did not use the money for energy projects.
“Imran Khan also levelled baseless allegations against me over which I have sent a defamation notice to him,” he added.
Aziz said the Election Commission of Pakistan accepted all the demands put forward by the PTI to ensure transparency of the by-elections. He added levelling allegations after losing the polls was deplorable.
In a relevant development yesterday, the Islamabad High Court accepted the federal government’s request to set aside the Election Commission’s order suspending parts of the Kissan Package announced by the prime minister last month.
The prime minister announced the package worth Rs 341 billion for farmers on September 15, but the Election Commission partially suspended the scheme on September 29, saying its announcement ahead of the scheduled local government elections in Punjab and Sindh amounted to violation of the code of conduct for the polls.