FAISALABAD: Federal railways minister Sheikh Rashid has predicted the opposition leaders would neither tender their resignations from the assemblies, nor hold a sit-in in Islamabad.

Talking to reporters at the Faisalabad Railway Station on Thursday, the Awami Muslim League leader and ruling PTI ally also said the opposition parties would not bring any no-confidence motion against the prime minister.

He said the Pakistan People’s Party parliamentarians could not tender resignations as the party would lose control on Sindh if they quit assemblies.

He also claimed that ‘Sheen League” (Shahbaz League) would part ways with the PML-Nawaz in January.

He said if the oppositions parties tendered resignation, the government would hold elections on the vacant seats as many candidates were ready for such a scenario.

Says Fazl too held a meeting with COAS

He said by addressing the multi-parties conference (MPC), the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had dug out his own political grave. “Nawaz is challenging those who brought him up,” he said referring to PML-N supreme leader’s hard-hitting address to the MPC.

He said Maulana Fazlur Rehman too had held one-on-one meeting with the army chief, claiming he would make public the venue and time of the meeting if JUI-F leader denied it.

The minister alleged that Maulana Fazl wanted to ignite sectarian riots in Pakistan, adding, however, the JUI-F leader would have to face embarrassment in this regard.

He said PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair had met with the COAS twice and the former Sindh governor had made a request in this regard.

Rashid said he challenged the opposition to tender resignations from assemblies, but they won’t do so as the time had passed for such a move.

Criticising the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s statement that he would not attend any meeting on national security in his (Rashid’s) presence, he said he was the member of the National Security Council when he (Bilawal) was not even born.

“I can respond to Bilawal, but don’t want to cross moral limits,” he said.

He said Maryam Nawaz’s Twitter handle remained silent for 10 months and similarly Nawaz did not utter a word for a year, adding that perhaps now they thought that the situation had turned in their favour. However, he said, Imran Khan had categorically said he would prefer to quit rather than “giving NRO” to the Sharifs.

He said the crises of flour and sugar, inflation and unemployment was because of “these thieves” who had laundered the country’s wealth abroad.

He alleged Nawaz Sharif was against the army but was a friend of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jundal and RAW.

He said not a single political leader in the country could claim that he had not met with COAS Gen Bajwa.

He said that Imran Khan was running government in the country with the help of the army, adding that the COAS had said that army would cooperate with all civilian governments.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2020