LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has said the opposition parties which held a multi-party conference (MPC) in Islamabad on Sunday are just deceiving themselves.

“The unemployed politicians should keep this in mind that the MPC cannot ensure public acceptability, but serving people is the real politics that is the hallmark of the PTI government,” he said in a statement issued here on Sunday.

Mr Buzdar said the “rejected elements” had done nothing in the past and would not get anything in the future as well.

He predicted that the MPC of the opposition parties would end in a fiasco.

He said the opposition parties had already been divided and would further split after the MPC. He said these parties had once again proved that they had only gathered for protecting their personal interests.

JI, PAT see agenda of ‘getting graft cases quashed’

“Opposition parties have totally ignored the national interest,” he said and added that those, who looted the national exchequer, could not hoodwink the people through, what he termed the drama of MPC.

He said the people of Pakistan recognised the “ineligible and corrupt” faces as they were well-informed.

Buzdar said the opposition parties were trying to create hurdles in the progress and prosperity of the country, adding that their “negative” role was highly deplorable and that Pakistan could not afford any more chaos.Meanwhile, some opposition parties which were not part of the MPC have alleged that the show was only aimed at getting quashed the corruption cases constituted against some of their leaders and had no pro-people agenda.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Punjab chapter emir Javed Kasuri says the agenda of MPC was to get quashed corruption cases against the leadership of the opposition parties and not aimed at solving the issues being faced by the country and the masses.

He says the JI will never join any forum that is not treating the public issues as top priority.

He asserts both PML-N and PPP ignored the country and the nation and preferred their vested interests.

Mr Kasuri says the Jamaat was of considered opinion that whosoever has plundered the national wealth or misused official powers must be held accountable, irrespective of political affiliation.

He says that double standards with regard to implementation of law are no more acceptable as the country lags behind other nations only because here is one law for the poor and another for the rich.

He regrets that those who talked of “one Pakistan” are also engaged in fortifying the existing corrupt system and their ‘incompetence’ has plunged the country into a disaster.

He alleges that the corrupt elements and tax evaders are sitting in the cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan, while 112 members of the Punjab Assembly, including its deputy speaker, didn’t pay even a single penny in tax though they spent millions of rupees to win the general election.

PAT: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Information Secretary Noorullah Siddiqui says humiliation of state institutions is the agenda of Nawaz Sharif and company.

“They [Nawaz & other opp leaders] are not interested in Pakistan’s politics, rather they are carrying forward the agenda of defaming Pakistan’s institutions while sitting abroad.”

He lamented that Mr Sharif was enough healthy to take part in political activities in London, but cannot return home to face courts here.

“He (Nawaz) should first serve his jail term and then talk on any other issue.”

He says as far as the leaders having NAB (National Accountability Bureau) cases against them are concerned, their stance on any issue has no moral, political or democratic value.

“They should give any political agenda only after clearing themselves of the corruption cases.”

He says the allegations being leveled by the opposition against the present government were no different from those leveled against various past governments.

He advises the opposition to come up with some “constructive” agenda and raise issues at elected forums.

Commenting on the MPC declaration, PAT general secretary Khurram Nawaz Gandapur says those who sided with Nawaz Sharif had to repent later and would do so in future again.

About the opposition’s warning of an impending protest movement in the country, he said

such an agitation must be launched by those who have a clean record, asking as how come “plunderers” approach the masses to mobilise them for a movement.

He wondered that some of the parties attending the MPC had been terming Mr Sharif an “evil” but were now siding with him (Nawaz).

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2020