ISLAMABAD - Giving call to his workers and supporters to prepare for a mass mobilisation campaign, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif warned Tuesday that the country was heading toward ‘tragedy’ if elected leaders keep being removed.

Nawaz Sharif said “We want democracy to be respected. The mandate of the people must be respected and in this connection a public debate should be initiated to rewrite a new social contract. The debate in the parliament was also needed to remove anomalies from the constitution.”

Nawaz Sharif minced no words while saying that he will not sit idle and will launch the campaign for strengthening democratic order in the country.

The former prime minister, while talking to media persons here at the Punjab House on Tuesday, a day before his departure for his powerbase, Lahore, via GT Road in the shape of a big public rally, said they had implemented the apex court verdict but not accepted it.

Reaffirming his commitment to bounce back, Nawaz said he was not going anywhere and would go to the people of Pakistan for the sake of democracy.

He said it was not the first time he was removed from power, firstly a president had sent him packing, next he was implicated in a fabricated case of plane hijack, while now he was disqualified by judiciary for not taking salary from his son’s company.

Nawaz Sharif questioned that for how long the public mandate would see such humiliation and elected prime ministers would be sent packing in unceremonious way.

Since the creation of the country not even a single prime minister of the country had completed his/her mandated term in office, he added.

“Prime ministers are deposed, assassinated or forced to go into exile. How long will the public’s mandate be undermined this way?” he asked.

He pointed out that Pakistan had never gone to war during the tenure of democratic governments, which had sought to resolve issues through talks instead.

“It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had stabilised the country after the 1971 war,” he added.

The former PM said he too sought peace in region, especially a solution to the Kashmir issue. He added the atrocities against the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir at the hands of the Indian forces must stop.

Nawaz Sharif in a lighter vein said that he would remain in the political arena and would complete his century and was not going anywhere.

He recalled that when he was exiled people had started talking that his [Nawaz Sharif] political career was over but they were all proven wrong as people of Pakistan had returned him to power even with a greater majority.

Nawaz said without the continuity of the democratic process things would not improve for the better in the country and time had come when the people of Pakistan should decide who had the right to rule the country and no future prime minister should be sent home in such a humiliating way.

To a question, Nawaz said in his view Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani should not have gone to the disqualification level.

To another question, the former prime minister said it was the judiciary which allowed former general Pervez Musharraf to leave the country as his government had invoked Article 6 against him for abrogating the constitution.

Nawaz once again reiterated that he did not believe in the politics of anarchy and confrontation and his home journey via GT Road should not be seen in this context.

“I don’t want reinstatement for myself. I am struggling to ensure the rule of law in Pakistan,” he said and added his legal team was preparing to file a review petition in his disqualification case and would be pointing out the lacunae in the verdict, which was not accepted by the people of Pakistan and they too had serious reservations over it.

Sharif insisted that a larger panel in the court should hear his review petition.

He said he was determined to travel to his powerbase today (Wednesday), despite a bombing there Monday. “I am going to my home. Do I not have a right to go to my home?” asked Sharif.

To a question, Nawaz said the judge appointed by the top court to monitor National Accountability Bureau (NAB) proceedings against him would not just decide cases as per his wishes but also listen to appeals against his own verdicts.

When asked whether the army had influenced the judiciary against him, Nawaz said ‘let’s leave this question for later’. “You will know the answers to these questions soon,” he said.

Responding to a question, Nawaz said his party won’t replace Abbasi with his brother, but that decision has yet to be finalised.

Nawaz criticised the investigators in the probe against him and his family, saying “our worst opponents were part of the JIT (Joint Investigation Team)” which was appointed by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

He vowed to launch a mass campaign to apprise his countrymen of the work he did to put the country “back on path of progress and prosperity”.

“God willing, I will remain active. I will keep guiding my party,” he said.

 

Ex-PM warns of risk to democracy