LAHORE: PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said Prime Minister Imran Khan has become blinded by vengeance against the opposition as he is keen to make it a “one-party country”.

“Imran Khan is on the verge of making a one-party country. The efforts to get Shahbaz Sharif arrested after filing of a new reference against him is political terrorism. The government wants to rig Gilgit-Baltistan elections by arresting Shahbaz. This will be pre-poll rigging,” Iqbal told a presser in Model Town here on Saturday.

Party spokespersons Marriyum Aurangzeb and Azma Bokhari were also present. Mr Iqbal said the government also wanted to win the upcoming local body polls through rigging.

The PML-N leader said he wanted to warn Mr Khan that through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) he could not suppress the voice of the opposition. “Such actions against the PML-N cannot divide it,” he said, adding that Imran Khan always stabbed in the back those who extended him favours.

The PML-N leader hoped that the judiciary would take notice of the NAB and Imran Khan’s tactics and provide relief to Shahbaz Sharif.

Talking about the narrative of party supremo Nawaz Sharif wherein he asked the military establishment to refrain from involvement in politics, Mr Iqbal said Mr Sharif’s address at the multiparty conference reflected the emotions of the PML-N workers. “The PML-N considers Nawaz’s political views and progress of the country its political doctrine.”

He said Nawaz’s speech had unnerved the government. “The PTI was made to win (the 2018 elections) through the Results Transmission System,” he further said, adding that Punjab had suffered the most under the PTI.

“Imran Khan’s Wasim Akram-plus could not learn reverse swing and instead put the progress of Punjab into reverse gear,” he lamented.

Iqbal said the army could not win a hybrid war alone, adding that meetings with the army chief on national issues were a routine matter, but the ministers had shown irresponsibility by talking about them.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2020