ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has again asked the “establishment and the judiciary” to stay away from politics and leave the political matters to be decided by the politicians and the people.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal also urged the “establishment” not to support the present set-up as such an action could put the whole state in danger.

“I will say it to the establishment. They say that they have distanced themselves from politics. It will be good if it happens. Still there is a time to rectify the mistake committed in the 2018 elections and provide an opportunity to the country to come out of the prevailing crises situation,” Mr Iqbal said while criticising the government’s economic and foreign policies.

He said the 73-year history showed that “whenever the establishment and judiciary have interfered and whenever the establishment has got the elected prime ministers removed through judiciary, its consequences were not good for the country”.

Fears if government remains in its place, state could end up on ventilator

“The present government is on ventilators. The time has come to remove ventilators. If this government is not removed from ventilators then, God forbid, Pakistan’s state can go on ventilators. We are to save the state of Pakistan,” the PML-N leader said.

He said that every individual and institution would have to work within the prescribed constitutional limits if they wanted to put Pakistan on the path of the constitutional rule.

“Pakistan’s generals should focus on the security threats [to the country] and the borders. The judges should see the justice system of Pakistan. Leave politics for politicians and the people of Pakistan,” he said, expressing the hope that if everyone would do his own job the country could come out of the crises in the next four to five years.

He said if it did not happen and the country was allowed to run under the present set-up the party which would win the next general elections in 2023 would prefer to sit on the opposition benches.

“If the incompetent government is allowed to continue through ventilators only to cover up the mistake committed in 2018 not only the government but also the state of Pakistan will have to be put on ventilators,” he added.

“If Pakistan is to be saved there is only one way to it. First of all, we should get rid of these incompetent rulers and have independent and transparent new elections in the country to install a capable government which can make this country stand on its feet with the help of the private sector and stakeholders with a national spirit and a spirit of charter of national economy,” he said.

In reply to a question about the future of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Mr Iqbal said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had formed a new alliance in the Senate with the Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party and Balochistan Awami Party on its own choice. He said the PPP had the right to form any alliance and the PML-N respected this right. He, however, said the other parties in the PDM would continue their struggle for the rule of law and Constitution.

He said the PML-N would try to form an “electoral front” in the next election that would comprise pro-constitution and pro-people parties.

Mr Iqbal lashed out at the government for allowing imports of agriculture produce from India despite the fact that there had been no change in New Delhi’s policy regarding Kashmir. He alleged that with the involvement of a “friend country” and through diplomacy, the Kashmir issue had been put on the back burner. He alleged that Kashmir’s freedom had been sold off merely for “$1bn rollover”.

He also criticised the government for failing to procure Covid-19 vaccine, saying that World Bank had placed Pakistan with Afghanistan as the only South Asian countries which had been unable to specify a time frame for vaccination of the whole population.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2021