LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab central region president Abdul Aleem Khan says the PML-N has a history of targeting the judiciary and the media and the truth inadvertently spoken by Senator Nehal Hashmi has leaked another “high level plan” of the PML-N against judiciary.

Speaking to party workers at Chairman’s Secretariat on Wednesday, Mr Khan said the so-called notice taken by the prime minister against Mr Hashmi was just an eyewash. He said Mr Hashmi would be punished for leaking the secret prematurely as Mushaidullah, Pervaiz Rasheed and Tariq Fatmi were punished.

He said the Nawaz government had a habit of getting its job done through some scapegoats, adding that the ruling PML-N was trying to pressurise the joint investigation team (JIT) of the Panama case. He said the PML-N’s all conspiracies would be exposed as the Panama case would reach to its logical end.

Mr Khan said those, considering themselves above the law, would have to face the law and added that soon Nawaz Sharif would also appear before the JIT and explain every penny stolen from the masses.

PPP: Reacting sharply to a PML-N leader’s statement against the Panama Papers joint investigation team, the Pakistan Peoples Party has alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is threatening the judiciary in the garb of Senator Nehal Hashmi.

Punjab Information Secretary Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar says as the probe into Panama Papers is progressing it is exposing the real face of the Sharifs.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Khokhar alleged that the prime minister was attempting to terrorise the national institutions as well as political rivals through such threats.

He cautioned the Sharifs that they would have to undergo the accountability process despite all their tactics [of bullying the judiciary].

Recalling that the son of then PPP prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had been produced in a court of law handcuffed, Mr Khokhar regretted that Husain Nawaz was extended official protocol whenever he appeared before the JIT. Despite the protocol, he said, Husain appeared scared.

He said had Nawaz Sharif been penalised for attacking the Supreme Court back in 1997 PML-N workers would not have dared to threaten the courts now.

He said the PPP never attacked national institutions though its prime ministers were either hanged or sent packing by courts while children of judges were being intimidated for just asking Nawaz Sharif to submit money trail of his family’s assets abroad.

Meanwhile, Osman Malik has been appointed as acting general secretary of Punjab PPP in place of Nadeem Afzal Chan, who has some engagements abroad.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2017