PM Shehbaz Sharif defends Imran Khan’s arrest: warns miscreants

PM Shehbaz Sharif defends Imran Khan’s arrest: warns miscreants

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addressed the nation on Wednesday, reiterating that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had legally arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on corruption and corrupt practice charges related to the Al Qadir Trust case involving a whopping amount of Rs60 billion (£190 million).

He warned the miscreants that the government would deal with them sternly and safeguard the motherland and its ideology at all costs. The prime minister emphasized the importance of the rule of law and that all individuals were equal before the law. He advised Imran Khan to face the NAB cases legally. The prime minister also mentioned that the Islamabad High Court had declared Imran Khan’s arrest as legal and in accordance with the law.

The prime minister noted that the political history of the country had been unpleasant based upon vendetta and never yielded good results. However, political parties learned from those experiences and vowed to work under the constitution by reaching the “Charter of Democracy.”

He stated that when they took over the government’s responsibilities on April 11 2022, they did not adopt the vengeance-based approach seen in PTI’s government against their political opponents. The prime minister elaborated that almost all leaders sitting in the first two rows of the National Assembly were sent to jail on false charges during the PTI’s previous regime.

He noted that their sisters, daughters, sons, and even relatives were not spared in the pursuit of blind vengeance, which hampered national development. The government brought amendments to the NAB laws due to countrywide demands, concerns, and the serious apprehensions of the bureaucracy and the business community.

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The prime minister said that when they were in opposition and referred to the necessary amendments in the NAB laws, their genuine demands were spurned by PTI’s leadership accusing them of seeking NROs.

The prime minister explained that after the NAB laws were amended, the period of remand was reduced from 90 days to 15 days, which was in accordance with the fairness of contemporary laws and under court observations. The first beneficiary of this amendment was Imran Khan. He also noted that the government still faced NAB cases, but none of them had been proven yet, which he considered a great blessing of Allah Almighty.

The prime minister also recalled the death of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and stated that the PPP leadership and workers faced the tragedy with patience and exemplary patriotism, particularly former President Asif Ali Zardari, who raised the slogan of “Pakistan Khappay,” taking the country on the path of democracy and progress.

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Regarding Imran Khan’s Al Qadir Trust corruption case, the prime minister questioned how a federal cabinet approved a significant amount related to the national kitty without opening an envelope. The cabinet members were kept in the dark, he said. He also questioned whether it was permitted by religious teachings, existing laws, and the democratic system that an accused should refuse to face the court of law.

The prime minister concluded by emphasizing that such a situation was an unpleasant moment in one’s life, but from such trials, the real character of leadership emerged, which should advise their followers not to cross the laws and protect public and private properties.

He expressed his sorrow that PTI’s supporters had inflicted severe damages to public and private properties, which had never been witnessed in the last 75 years. The public were made hostages in their vehicles, patients were taken out of ambulances, and later those vehicles were torched. The Swat motorway was damaged, and government officials were tortured, he added.

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