TAXILA: Former interior minister and veteran politician Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday brought to an end uncertainty about his association with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and announced parting ways with his party of more than 35 years.

Addressing a press conference here at Wah Cantonment, he said: “I am not part of PML-N anymore.”

Chaudhry Nisar said he had taken a decision according to his conscience. The disgruntled leader said he cannot put himself for sale. “I have been part of the PML-N for a long time. I do politics of honour, not of power,” he added.

Former minister holds both govt and opposition responsible for political turmoil

He said he had strong relationship with many senior leaders of the PML-N. But, he added, “I have said many times I am not anymore a part of the PML-N”. He said some senior leaders of the PML-N had differences and issues between them which had not been resolved.

The former federal minister said a conspiracy was being hatched against the country to weaken it on multiple fronts.

He held both the government and the opposition responsible for the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

PML-N local leader Sheikh Sajidur Rehman and Zeeshan Saeed were present on the occasion.

Chaudhry Nisar raised questions over the performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, saying that it had no policy how to solve the problems of the country and provide relief to poor people.

He said that the devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar and increase in the prices of petroleum products would have an adverse impact on the people of the country. He said by October a high rate of inflation might hit the country and make the life of poor people miserable. Such a situation could cause a mass movement against the government, he added.

He said despite the tall claims of the PTI leadership before coming into power, the government of the party had surrendered itself to international financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He claimed that the government was now taking dictations from these institutions.

Talking about the proposed bailout package from the IMF, he said the government had put the country on stake just for “peanuts”.

He said the PTI government should take measures for providing some relief to the poor.

The veteran politician also raised questions over the way the people in the government speak about opposition parties, saying that calling everyone dacoit and looter would not work. If the ruling party wanted to solve the problems being faced by people and give a direction to the country, it must have to take the nation into confidence.

Chaudhry Nisar termed the new local government system unconstitutional and claimed that the government had stopped functions of the local government institutions because it had no majority in them.

He opposed any type of interference in the working of the National Accountability Bureau and other institutions, saying that these institutions must be allowed to do their work independently.

Chaudhry Nisar — who had won a seat of the Punjab Assembly in the 2018 general elections, but had not taken the oath of it so far — said it would be a sheer hypocrisy if he took the oath of the provincial assembly’s seat.

He said being a member-elect of the provincial assembly it would not be justified for him to raise questions over the performance of the National Assembly.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan should be made accountable for making what he called false claims about discovery of oil reserves in the country.

Chaudhry Nisar, who himself remained a federal minister for petroleum in the past, said Mr Khan was misinformed about the discovery of oil reserves in the Arabian Sea.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2019