ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Thursday rejected ex-PM Imran Khan’s narrative and asserted that no one needed to conspire against an ‘incompetent’ government.
Speaking at a joint news conference after a meeting in London, they said Imran Khan’s government had failed in all respects and it was mandatory to remove him.
Nawaz Sharif alleged Imran Khan of breaking all promises with the people and weakening the country’s economy to a dead level. “Why would anyone conspire against you? Were you involved in holding an atomic blast,” Sharif said. Nawaz Sharif, who was removed by the Supreme Court from the PM’s office in 2017, said during the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government prior to Imran Khan, Pakistan’s economy was moving up steadily.
“Now everyone knows what he (Imran Khan) has done to the economy. It will take an effort to repair the damage. But we will do this job,” he contended.
Sharif accused Imran Khan of promoting a hostile political environment in Pakistan. “He promoted the culture of hooliganism and immorality. We need joint efforts to come out of this,” he added.
The PML-N supremo said “we need to work together as Pakistan saw the worst of times during the four years that Imran Khan was in power. He took U-turns on everything and always did the opposite of what he vowed.”
Sharif reminded that Imran Khan had promised to commit suicide before approaching the International Monetary Fund for financial support but he never fulfilled his pledge. The PML-N leader said he will hold another meeting with Bilawal today (April 22).
Speaking on the occasion, Bilawal said the coalition government would try to once again work towards the restoration of democracy in the country.
“There was no foreign conspiracy against Imran Khan, it was a democratic conspiracy. It was not in the White House, but a conspiracy hatched at the Bilawal House,” he said.
The PPP chief, who is set to take over the Foreign Minister on return, claimed that Sharif’s sacrifices for democracy were evident before everyone. “We both are on the same page. Only through unity we will resolve Pakistan’s issues,” he added. He said the PML-N and PPP will resolve Pakistan’s issues once they were on the same page.
He said the removal of Imran Khan was the Prime Minister a ‘historical’ incident. “The two parties have made history together in the past by signing the Charter of Democracy,” he said.
Bilawal said it took three to four years for the joint opposition to end the rule of the erstwhile “selected government” in a constitutional way through a no-confidence motion.
He said the allied parties did not involve judiciary or any other institution to remove Imran Khan from power. “We took a democratic step against the PM who was sitting in the prime minister’s chair undemocratically,” he said.
Bilawal congratulated Nawaz Sharif on the success of the no-confidence motion and the fall of the Imran Khan government. Bilawal also felicitated Nawaz Sharif on his victory in the election of Prime Minister and Chief Minister of Punjab
Sherry Rehman, Naveed Qamar, and Qamar Zaman Kaira accompanied Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while PML-N leaders Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Ishaq Dar, and Abid Sher Ali were also present at the meeting.