LAHORE: Awami Muslim League president Sheikh Rashid claims that the incumbent government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is looking for excuses to enforce an emergency in the country.
Speaking to the media here on Sunday, he said that the PDM government was searching for excuses to enforce an emergency in the country to delay the general election and, for that purpose, was ‘misrepresenting’ the recent Supreme Court verdict on holding the polls within 90 days as per the constitutional scheme.
He alleged that Federal Minister Rana Sanaullah could cause any serious accident or a crime to provide a base for delaying the polls for fear of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s popularity, but the government would fail to find a way out.
Sheikh Rashid said that the leader of today is Imran Khan (and thus will win the polls), and only God knows who will be more popular in the future. He said that the caretaker set-up would remain in place for not more than 90 days.
He chided the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor for saying that he didn’t yet receive court orders about announcing the polls schedule for the KP assembly as per the demand of the Constitution. He said the frontman of JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman would be liable to be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution by deviating from the apex court order and the constitutional responsibilities.
The former interior minister said that the six Islamabad policemen who had come to arrest PTI chairman Imran Khan did not dare discharge their departmental responsibility and warned the government that Imran Khan would be more popular if incarcerated. He regretted that like Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the other cabinet members had also begun travelling abroad without any benefit for the country and the nation. He claimed that 25 ministers had so far spent Rs660 million on their foreign trips during the last 11 months. He said that he did not expect from Imran Khan the speech he delivered a day ago in which the latter talked of reconciliation and sitting with everyone for talks except those who had plundered the country.
Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2023
