ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah has said that Mian Nawaz Sharif has no right to remain the prime minister even for a minute, asking him to resign as Pakistan needs a powerful chief executive.
Khurshid was addressing a press conference in Islamabad. Sherry Rehman and other Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders were also present on the occasion on Thursday.
He said that the PPP always stood for strong democratic system, saying that the presence of Nawaz as leader of the House would weaken the parliament.
He said that in 2014, the PPP was accused of friendly opposition due to its support for the democracy, saying that the PPP saved Nawaz for the sack of democracy. However, now, he said that Nawaz presence would damage the democracy, therefore, he should resign.
He said that the PPP would support country’s institutions, saying that the PML-N has attacked the Supreme Court in the past. He said that the PPP wanted the JIT to work independently, which has submitted the report in the Supreme Court (SC). He said that now the SC would decide the case.
Khurshid said that the PPP has contacted every political party on the Panama papers case. He accused the ruling party of moving towards a confrontation with “national institutions”, saying, “A lot of damage has been done by the way PML-N have tried to malign institutions, which will take a lot of time to repair.”
“It is shameful for the sitting prime minister of Pakistan to be holding a work visa and getting salary from a small country,” he said that referring to a finding in the Joint Investigation Team’s report, which claims the prime minister was employed in the United Arab Emirates even after being elected in 2013. It is no more a matter of Article 62-63, the opposition leader said that “The issue is now about the criminal acts that have been committed you misused the representation of people act and submitted false documents.”
He also said that members of the Sharif family are trying to mislead the courts and that the prime minister has lost his right to remain in office “even for a minute.”
Khurshid said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lost moral legitimacy and should resign following the submission of the JIT’s report.
He said that the PML-N government should complete its tenure by nominating another party leader for the position of prime minister. “The government wants confrontation with the judiciary,” Khurshid said.
He said the PPP stands alongside national institutions while the incumbent leadership has caused irreparable loss to institutions and said the PML-N has attacked the SC in the past.
Taking a swipe at the leadership, he asked if they will again confront the public and the judiciary. He also questioned why no action has been taken against the prime minister yet.
Khurshid said that Nawaz lacks the courage to confront the democratic political parties of the country. He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lost his moral authority to rule Pakistan. “We are happy that the issue of the premier’s resignation was raised by the cabinet,” he said.
He said that prime minister maligned the state institutions and added that Nawaz Sharif wants to lock horns with the judiciary once again.
“PM doesn’t have the guts to take on the political parties,” the PPP leader said. “PPP is standing with the state institutions,” he said. Khurshid said that no one can say that his party pressurised the joint investigation team.
He said that PPP suffered much to save the democracy, saying that we were flogged, hanged and put in jails and no other party faced such sufferings as were suffered by PPP.
Khurshid said that unfortunately PML-N faced a time and everyone saw that he himself disappeared from the map and said farewell to politics and a few people of his party fled to Pervez Mushrraf, a few fled somewhere else and a few made their own parties and some became silent and some preferred house-imprisonment while remaining in PML-N and PPP once again gave its life to bring them back.
Khurshid said that now they are boasting and raising high slogans. He said that PPP did not put pressure when JIT was constituted and whatever it did, saying that PPP always tried that the institutions should make their own decisions and they should use their powers appropriately and should get the answers to the questions themselves
