Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said that there is no threat of Washington undertaking military action against Pakistan.
His comments come in the wake of growing tense relations between Pakistan and the United States following Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of taking $33 billion in aid and giving only “deceit and lies” in return while harboring Afghan insurgents. Days later, the US had suspended military aid to Pakistan.
Infuriated by Trump’s tweet, Pakistan had accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan.
If the country had been under democratic rule at the time of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the situation today would have been very different, the premier said on Monday while speaking to parliamentary reporters.
During his talk with the reporters, Abbasi said that for the upcoming general elections, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif would run the ruling PML-N's campaign.
"If somebody else is featured on the posters, the party will not be able to garner as many votes," he said. Abbasi added that no matter when the assemblies are dissolved, the general elections will be held in July.
The prime minister said that the next budget will be planned by the PML-N; however, it has not been decided yet who will present it.
He went on to say that it would be better if all the institutions in the country functioned within their own jurisdictions.
"These days all institutions are trying to make their own space," Abbasi added. "Information on the person who has been appointed as a judge should be available to the public."
He dismissed rumours that the PML-N was trying to strike a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
Rumours of Nawaz seeking a deal with the establishment for his return had entered into public discourse after he was dismissed by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case last year. They surfaced again when the two Sharif brothers ─ Nawaz and Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif ─ travelled to Saudi Arabia in December last year.
The reports had been dismissed both times.
"Thieves seek NROs. We have not robbed anyone that we should seek an NRO," Abbasi told reporters on Monday, adding, "There is no danger to the parliament."
