RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed celebrated the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Lal Haveli on Friday.

More than 100 workers participated in the celebrations and chanted slogans against the PML-N leadership including Maryam Nawaz and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Talking to the media outside Lal Haveli, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed praised himself and said his prediction of the prime minister being disqualified had come true.

He said that in the past, his predictions about sacrifices before Eid-ul Azha had proved wrong.

“But this time, the sacrifice is legal, constitutional and before Eid-ul Azha,” he said, adding that he had also been right about coffins and proofs being brought out from the Supreme Court.

He said the former prime minister and his lawyers provided the JIT and the apex court with fake documents and had tried to hide the truth during hearings of the case. He alleged that former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif had offered members of the JIT billions of rupees and to SC judges in order to get a verdict in his favour.

He said neither the JIT nor the judges of the apex court had accepted the offer and had performed their duties with honesty and commitment.

“Former ministers Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and MNA Hamza Shahbaz were never in the former premier’s good books and all of them seem to be happy with Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification,” he said.

He added that the former premier had once asked his party men to oust him from parliament and that the tables have now turned and Nawaz Sharif has been declared to not be Sadiq and Ameen by the SC. June 28 will be remembered as a day of victory, he said, adding that many PML-N workers are happy with the verdict.

The AML leader said Nawaz Sharif had made a mistake by not forming ToRs despite insistence from the opposition and that he had advised the former prime minister to step down a year ago as well.

“With the Supreme Court’s decision, Nawaz Sharif lost power and respect,” he said.

The MNA said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not need to tender his resignation now that the cabinet has been dissolved after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and that Mr Nisar will now be a former minister.

Sheikh Rashid claimed former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had halted ongoing projects in Rawalpindi including those for hospitals, colleges and Leh Expressway.

He accused former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources Khaqaab Abbasi of pocketing billions of rupees in commissions in an LNG deal and vowed he will bring Abbasi to court and take the money back. He said his lawyers will contest the legal notice sent to him by Hanif Abbasi for calling him a drug dealer.

“I have enough evidence to prove Abbasi as a drug peddler in court which I will produce whenever needed,” he said.

The AML leader said a large public rally will be held in Liaquat Bagh on August 13 and that the venue will be changed to Lal Haveli in case the district government denies his party permission to set up in Liaquat Bagh.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017