LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi have said the national economy and security are correlated and asked the PML-N government to stop crying hoarse over the statements of the army.

“Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISPR Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor have highlighted facts about the national economy. Their statements are for national betterment and reflect people’s thinking and aspirations on the key issue. There is no need for the government to be panicked,” said Chaudhry Shujaat who, along with Pervaiz Elahi, was speaking to a delegation of the party lawyers at their residence here on Sunday.

Shujaat said shortcomings in the economy directly affected the country’s security. “There is no doubt the rulers are bent upon weakening the country and defaming the national institutions at international level,” he said.

Pervaiz Elahi said the PML-N preferred its friendship to Modi government to the need to safeguard the national interests. “The government has weakened economy through getting billions of dollars loans, defamed the army and the Supreme Court, and also attacked ideology of the country,” Mr Elahi said.

He said what more insult it could be for a country that the World Bank had refused to meet Finance Minister Ishaq Dar who has been facing charges of corruption.

The PML-Q leaders paid tribute to the four soldiers who died in the line of duty in Kurram Agency.

JI: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq says the government will be solely responsible for any political mishap in the country.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he cautioned the government that the way various cabinet members are behaving (on certain issues and against some state institutions) could lead to some political mishap. He said weakening the institutions and overpowering them was no achievement.

He said the only agenda of the government is to pass time. “The government proved to be an absolute failure and by now it’s unable to see the writing on the wall.”

The JI emir lamented that the national politics was revolving around a few families and the masses had only been given the gifts of lawlessness, price hike, injustice and taxes. He said the masses were fed up with the kind of democracy which meant poverty and hunger for the poor but luxuries for a few.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2017