SUKKUR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that his party has complete regard for Pak Army and it gives due respect to the institution but in reality the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government wants to make the state institution controversial.

The former speaker of National Assembly told media persons after offering condolence to adviser of Sindh chief minister Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani over the death of his mother in Jacobabad on Sunday that they had no problem with the army while the PTI was now trying in vain to hide behind the army for fear of drowning in the deluge of rising public anger.

He said that in its frenetic attempts to save itself the government was drowning the army with it. The federal government should abstain from dumping its incompetence upon the army, he said.

‘In reality the PTI wants to make the institution controversial’

He said that PTI men were free to lodge any number of cases against opposition as the world knew well now about the nexus between National Accountability Bureau and Imran Khan.

He said that Imran Khan was now issuing threats to the opposition that he would not leave any corrupt politician but he should also tell the nation the names of those who were seeking relief from him.

He said that none from the opposition benches had asked for tabling amended draft of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law in the assembly and the PTI members brought it on their own.

Mr Sadiq said that accountability was directed only to the leaders of opposition parties including PML-N and PPP but that the government could not prove charges against any leader whether it was Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari or Shahbaz Sharif. If the federal government believed it could strengthen economy by sending workers and leaders of PML-N and PPP behind bars then it must hurry it, he said.

He said the country faced crisis of sugar and flour and the price of the sweetener which was being sold at Rs55 per kg had reached Rs110 per kilo while the price of flour had doubled.

Inflation had gone through the roof, unemployment was at all time high and people were groaning under unbearable burden of poverty but Imran Khan kept harping on the same tune of ‘Nahi choroon ga’.

Mr Sadiq said that whenever Imran Khan had taken notice of a problem, it had only worsened and gone out of his control. He had simply no idea of running a government and people of the country had become fed up with his antics, he said.

He said that threats of slapping ban on PML-N and PPP were not new. Tiger Force had no legal justification and the government should lay hands on the mafias that were supplying essential commodities to shopkeepers at high price, he said. He said that Imran Khan always talked about mafias while the real mafia stood on both of his sides. Why was he not arresting them, he asked.

He said in answer to a question that the final destination of Pakistan Democratic Movement was Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2020