LAHORE: Giving credence to reports of differences in the House of Sharif, opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz says the issue of voting for the extension in the tenure of the incumbent Chief of the Army Chief is not ambiguous as it was the decision of the leadership.

“There is no ambiguity on the issue of voting in the parliament for the extension of the army chief’s tenure. It was a decision of the party leadership,” he said while talking to the media here on Sunday.

He said in his opinion, it was the right decision taken at the right time and that there would come times in the life of nations when decisions were made in the larger national interest instead of personal ones.

He was asked about PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s statement that she was not part of the decision and that those who were part of it should tender an apology (to the nation).

Asked if he supported the stance of resistance or reconciliation in the party, he said he believed in political struggle and wanted transparent elections in which all parties are given a level playing field. As if to negate the impression that he and his father were following a reconciliation policy, he said he might not have been behind bars for two years if he had been supporting the reconciliation policy.

Hamza asked who’s accused in the foreign funding case and in the (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s) helicopter (misuse) case. He was replying to a query about the PTI government’s stance that opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif would not be consulted on the new appointment of the National Accountability Bureau for “an accused could not be consulted on the appointment of the investigator”, a reference to multiple cases against Shehbaz being investigated by NAB and FIA.

Earlier, Hamza criticized the government for what he said was its failure on economic, governance, delivery, and foreign policy fronts.

He alleged that corruption was rampant in Punjab as new postings in the district administration and police as well as other lucrative posts were being made against heavy bribes creating law and order problems in the province.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2021