ISLAMABAD - In the wake of fresh wave of terrorism in the country, Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf on Friday cast doubts that recent incidents of terrorism were part of efforts to delay the 2018 general elections.
PTI also accused the caretaker governments of being inexperience to cope with the security challenges ahead of the July 25 election. It also said that the caretaker set-up has mishandled the situation arising out of the arrival of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz in Pakistan.
Secretary Information PTI Fawad Chaudhry addressing a press conference here said: “Our enemies want that elections should be delayed. The most important agenda for all political parties at this time should be in time and transparent holding of elections as this is necessary for the future of the country. For elections it is necessary to maintain peace in the country”.
He said caretaker governments have no capacity to overcome security challenges the country is facing as they come for a very limited time and powers. So it is beyond their capacity to overcome the situation , he said and added that the caretaker provincial governments should immediately summon meetings of provincial apex committee in which all security related institutions had representations. He said that caretaker chief ministers should immediately summon apex committees’ meetings and implement their recommendations regarding improvement of security situation. He further said that only summoning of cabinet meetings will not work.
Fawad Chaudhry said that all political parties are united against terrorism and condemned the terrorist attacks on ANP candidate Haroon Bilour and JUI-F leader Akram Durrani. “From the last 20 years since 9/11, Pakistan is facing irregular conflict and the situation is not normal,” he added. He also said that Pakistan’s problems were associated with terrorism as these are more external than internal. We are heading towards general elections and holding of peaceful elections is important for the future of Pakistan, he added. He also said that security of leadership either political or military or any other institution was important as they were considered to be the assets of the country.
The second important issue, he said, was that of arrival of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz. He said that the caretaker set-up had mishandled the situation because of being inexperience. He said that state should enforce its law on the convicted members of Sharif family. “When we were holding sit-ins, we were blamed for compromising the democracy and now Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz itself is holding protest,” he argued.
He said that caretaker set-up should change its strategy and the existing panic among the masses was because of its inexperience. “Had PTI been in power, we would not have made arrests or suspend mobile phone services,” he said.
“The allegations against Nawaz Sharif are simple that you made properties abroad, his daughter said that they had no properties abroad but later documents revealed that Avenfield apartments were owned by Sharif and Maryam since 1993,” he added.
He also demanded that sons of Nawaz Sharif, Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz should be brought back in the country to try them in an accountability court. He said that most important cases that have yet to be decided was the Hill Metal case as Al-Aziz Steel Mills and FZE cases are associated with it. He said that Hasan and Hussain were associated with this case as both were allegedly networks of 16 companies. As many as 3000 crore rupees transactions were made in these companies, he added. He demanded that the looted money of Sharif family should also be brought back in the country.
Responding to a question, he said that problem with the PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership was that they used to start raising fingers at the state institutions including judiciary and army and say that democracy was under threat when they were being asked about their assets of worth billions.
IMRAN MUKHTAR