LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif claimed PTI leader Imran Khan, who is incarcerated in Adiala Jail, wanted to provoke a clash between the people of Punjab led by the PML-N and the PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speaking at a ceremony in Lahore about the provincial government’s subsidised housing project, the PML-N president used an analogy of “Central Asian invaders” to make his point, but he did not name the PTI leader.
According to the elder Sharif, the PTI founder was purportedly behaving like the Central Asian raiders who used to attack Punjab in ancient times.
“You want to provoke a clash between KP and Punjab. You are behaving like the invaders from Central Asia who used to attack Punjab in ancient times. Instead of inciting the people of KP to invade Punjab, you should focus on serving them,” the PML-N chief said, adding that those who followed Khan blindly like “sheep and goats” should ask him what happened to the five million houses he promised during his tenure.
He also criticised the PTI’s poor governance in KP, saying: “His (Khan) performance was zero, and despite his party’s government in KP [for the third time], it has failed to meet the expectations of the people. Their only focus is on protests and street riots.”
Referring to Imran Khan’s statements during the 2014 sit-in, Sharif recalled: “He said he would drag me with a noose around my neck. Such arrogance! Learn humility and fear God. You reap what you sow.”
The diatribe targeting the PTI leader came almost a month after the PML-N president floated a proposal for an across-the-board dialogue to pull the country out of crises. However, his proposal didn’t gain much traction as the government ratcheted up the crackdown on the PTI after it held a public gathering in Sangjani, Islamabad. Following the intensified crackdown, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took a strong stance, claiming that the ‘revolution’ had started and they would respond to bullets by the police with bullets.
The elder Sharif once again railed against judges who ousted him from power in the Panama Papers case in 2017.
