MURREE: Holding a fresh free and fair election is the only panacea for all the problems the country is facing today, says former prime minister and senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

In a conversation with Dawn and later talking to reporters in Taxila on Tuesday, he ruled out the possibility of a national government and in-house change.

Mr Abbasi said all stakeholders should sit together and take a decision within the ambit of the Constitution for holding a free and fair election in the country which, according to him, was the only solution of getting the country out of the chaos created by the failures and incompetence of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

He severely criticised the performance of the PTI government, saying the government was literally not functioning. He claimed that the economy of the country had totally collapsed and all economic indicators were negative.

He said the PTI government could not introduce a single policy for betterment of the country’s people.

Rules out possibility of national government and in-house change

“If I think just as a politician I would favour the idea of giving the full five-year term to the present government so that its failures and incompetence could be exposed, but the economy of the country is deteriorating and as a responsible politician and a former prime minister of the country I cannot keep quiet on this grave situation,” Mr Abbasi said.

He claimed that the previous PML-N government had put the country’s economy on the right track, but the failures of the present government had badly damaged the growth rate.

The former prime minister accused the PTI government of victimising the opposition, saying it was making false cases against the leaders of opposition parties in a futile exercise of diverting the attention of people from its failures and incompetence.

Mr Abbasi criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying the bureau was being used for political victimisation of the opposition. The voice of the opposition was being suppressed through NAB. He said that a high court had questioned the credibility of NAB.

Talking about his detention, Mr Abbasi said he was kept in a solitary confinement in a death cell for more than four months after his five-month custody under judicial remand. But, he added, during all this period no substantial question was asked from him.

Denying allegations against him, the former prime minister said that his hands were clean. “I have been in politics for more than 30 years and I have never embezzled or misused a single penny of the nation.” He demanded that the trial against him must be open so that the people of the country could know how the political victimisation is being carried out against political opponents at the behest of the PTI government and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Mr Abbasi thanked those people who welcomed him in large numbers after his release from jail.

In Taxila, Mr Abbasi held a meeting with a former member of the Punjab Assembly, Umer Farooq.

After the meeting, the former prime minister told the reporters that the solution of political and economic challenges of the country was new election in the country.

He ruled out any improvement in the country’s economic situation even if an in-house change is brought.

He rejected the government’s claims of eliminating poverty from the country and curbing inflation, saying these were just empty slogans. He said the people of the country could not get any relief under the present regime.

He was of the view that presently no governance and government existed in the country. He said that the prime minister issued false statements, made false claims and levelled false allegations. He alleged that the PTI government was minting Rs2 billion daily from the public through different pretexts. He challenged PM Khan to tell the people that the flour and sugar crises in the country were created to provide benefits to two persons close to him.

Amjad Iqbal from Taxila also contributed to this story.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2020