CHINIOT - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira remarked that the country’s prime minister should not bring the Senate into disrepute.
While addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Kaira hit back at premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for criticising the Senate chairman and its newly-elected members over horse-trading allegations. “The PM himself is buying votes.”
Over the much-talked about meeting between Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and the prime minister recently, Kaira remarked that the PM should share details of the meeting.
“Why did you [PM] go to the chief justice, please tell the nation,” the PPP leader said, adding that the PM said that he went as a ‘faryadi’, asking “What faryaad [wish] did the premier share with the CJP?”
The PPP leader further remarked that if the premier is so helpless, he should just resign. “There is a lot of confusion in the government. Nawaz wants to be the only one calling the shots,” Kaira claimed.
Criticising former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Kaira remarked that Nawaz lied while speaking in the National Assembly about his assets. “Supreme Court’s verdict states that Nawaz Sharif is a liar.”
“The courts punish all those who break the law,” Kaira asserted. The PPP leader said his party had never criticised the judiciary on any verdict.
Kaira said the former premier wanted to hurt the country’s political system by maligning the judiciary and armed forces.
He said NAB references were instituted against Sharif for committing corruption and explained the corruption charges levelled against him were not about whether he had property in his name or not, but about the assets owned by his children and the flow of money used to buy pricey properties abroad.
There was sufficient evidence on the record against the PML-N supreme leader, he said and added the court would soon hand down a decision against him.
Slamming PM Abbasi, he said the people looked towards him as their premier while he himself called a disqualified person his prime minister.
He regretted that the ruling party after targeting the judiciary and armed forces was now criticising the Senate. He said sensing its defeat in the upcoming general elections, the PML-N has launched a propaganda.
Abbasi, while addressing an event in Dera Ghazi Khan on Saturday, had remarked that Pakistan’s senators are those who have bought votes.
“Should our senators be those who buy votes of other people? Should the chairman be a person who bought votes? This is the quality of politics nowadays. This is the wrong we have to correct with the power of votes,” the PM added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said he had visited the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar as a ‘faryadi’ (complainant) of the country.
He was referring to the reported remarks of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar during a hearing on Thursday wherein he had said his job was to listen to the pleas of every ‘faryadi’.
“The prime minister came with a plea, and it is my duty to hear everyone’s requests. I didn’t go to the PM house or the Secretariat. They came to visit me,” Justice Nisar was quoted as saying.
However, the apex court clarified that the chief justice never used the word ‘faryadi’ for Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The remarks had stirred controversy, with Nawaz commenting yesterday that the prime minister can seek an explanation on them from the chief justice.