ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lashed out at Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday for allegedly maligning the country’s top institutions and defending former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who had to quit after the Supreme Court disqualified him in its Panama Papers case judgement.

Reacting to the interior minister’s news conference in Lahore, PTI spokesman Fawad Chau-dhry described Mr Iqbal’s remarks about the country’s apex court and the institutions of national security as “inappropriate”.

In his statement he alleged that the interior minister had stated what he had been told by Mr Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz. “Like a kid, Ahsan Iqbal repeated the lesson against the court and the national security institutions that had been taught to him by the princess,” he said, apparently referring to Ms Sharif.

Speaking at the news conference earlier in the day, the interior minister stated without elaborating that some institutions had been attempting to overstep into the domain of parliament and making efforts to discredit elected representatives.

Commenting on the July 28 Supreme Court judgement which led to Mr Sharif’s ouster, the interior minister reportedly stated that a fair trial was a fundamental right of every citizen under Article 10(a) of the Constitution.

An elected prime minister had been disqualified without a right of appeal, he said, adding that they had implemented the court’s decisions despite having reservations. The PTI spokesman asked the interior minister to call Mr Sharif and his children back to the country to face National Accountability Bureau cases.

He regretted that PML-N ministers and leaders had been stating that the country could face destabilisation if “the corrupt people like Nawaz Sharif” were held accountable.

Mr Chaudhry also asked Mr Iqbal to tell the nation as to who had hatched a conspiracy against the Sharif family and who had been behind the reopening of the Hudaibya Paper Mills case.

The PTI spokesman said democracy and Pakistan had become stronger today after the conviction of Mr Sharif, as people had now started believing in courts.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2017