F.P. Report
LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique has said ‘Jatha politics’ is a dangerous trend, and it should not be allowed in the country at all.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said political leaders never use jathas [groups] to resist a court order, and they surrender to the law gracefully.
Criticising the Imran Khan government’s alleged excesses against his political opponents, he said: “All certified political leadership of the country was imprisoned and defamed by levelling fake allegations against them.” He questioned that why an agreement was not being finalised with the IMF, asserting that the IMF knew that Pakistan was financially a weak country and it was demanding implementation of new conditions every other day for signing the agreement.
“Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has shared one of the conditions with the media a day earlier,” he added.
He said that this was the game being played with the solidarity of the country. “He (Imran) is not a politician but a threat to the country, “ he alleged. The minister said there were two separate laws for the common man and for Imran Khan and no such concessions were ever given to other parties’ leaderships. “We are still appearing before courts and never avoided the proceedings,” he added. The PML-N senior leader said that everybody knew that Mian Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz used to appear before courts regularly.
He said Imran Khan would have to appear before courts even if it was acceptable to him or not. Kh Saad alleged that Imran had never struggled for the rule of law, never faced any dictatorship and never raised voice for the rule of Constitution, adding that he just played cricket in his life, told lies and used abusive language against his opponents. He said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was established with the help of facilitators and foreign funding, and now the state was facing its consequences.
Being a representative of the federal government, he said that the law would take its course against all those involved in violence against the administration and the law-enforcers. “We know every person who did illegal and unlawful acts against political leadership, but we do not believe in revenge,” he said and added that several such people sought apology in private meetings.
He said the leaders of the ruling alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), knew it well that after taking charge of the country their politics would be at stake. But, they believed that the country country was more important than their politics, and the government was struggling to save the country, which had been destroyed by Imran Khan and his facilitators. About ever increasing inflation, the minister said it was obvious that inflation would increase when the IMF and friendly countries were not giving financial support to the government.
He said that Imran Khan was playing with the country and was still being facilitated by his foreign allies like Zalmay Khalilzad and others besides the foreign funding.
The minister said that Imran Khan was now criticising his own previous facilitators.
To a question, Kh Saad said that the PMLN’s election manifesto would be new judicial system, merit based promotion of the lower judiciary, upgradation of procedure of judges’ appointment to higher courts and new financial framework, according to the national requirements. (APP)
