LAHORE: PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday admitted that the decisions in the cases against him were reversed at a ‘fast pace’ because they were hollow but questioned who were the persons behind the conspiracy to oust him from power in 2017 as he had not challenged former army chiefs – retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Raheel Sharif.

“I am acquitted in the fake cases as there was no evidence to prove the allegations against me. See how quickly the decisions in these cases have been reversed. These were instituted because a conspiracy was hatched to oust me from power (in 2017),” he said while speaking to the aspirants for the party tickets from the Sahiwal division at Model Town here.

The PML-N’s parliamentary board has been holding meetings on a daily basis in Model Town to shortlist candidates for Feb 8, 2024 polls. The party is facing problems because of infighting among some party leaders over award of tickets to either their relatives or ‘favourites’ besides accommodating sugar baron Jehangir Khan Tareen’s Istehkham-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Chaudhry Shujaat’s PML-Q which it considers a liability of the PDM government.

Nawaz Sharif indirectly blamed the Supreme Court bench that disqualified him as premier for not receiving salary from his son and two former army chiefs for a conspiracy to topple his government in 2017. He also named a sitting Supreme Court judge for his role in his ouster. He said that it wasn’t NAB’s independent decision as a monitoring judge of SC was appointed to ensure that he must be punished. “I want to know who conspired against me…in fact they conspired against the people of this country. Neither had I made any conspiracy against Gen Bajwa and Gen Raheel Sharif nor any one else…then why I was ousted despite the fact that I had worked for development of the country like bringing CPEC, making the country’s defence stronger, saying goodbye to IMF and delivered on every front.”

PML-N supremo continues with his tirade against judges, generals

This is the first time in recent months that he named Gen Sharif regarding his ouster episode. In his last-week speech, Nawaz Sharif lambasted former ISI chief retired Gen Faiz Hameed for pressuring former Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui not to grant bail to him. The three-time premier further rued that he was likened with ‘sicilian mafia and godfather’ by the SC bench that heard his cases.

He also accused former SC judge Sheikh Azmat Saeed of seeking promotion for his relative (from the then PML-N government) and threatened him with sending him to Adiala Jail which he said he (Nawaz) eventually landed.

Accountability of ‘conspirators’

The elder Sharif reiterated his stance of not seeking ‘revenge’ from those behind his government’s ouster but he strongly insisted that such elements must be brought to justice otherwise this cycle would not break.

He claimed the people of Pakistan who suffered the most because of decisions against him would deliver a “historic verdict” against these injustices in upcoming polls.

On Tuesday, the conviction of Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia case — one of the three refe­ren­ces instituted against him in light of the Panama Papers — was dec­lared void, as the Islamabad High Court gave him a ‘clean shit’ by acq­­u­i­tting him despite a NAB request for a re-trial. Following the reversal of his conviction in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield cases, legal experts believe that Nawaz may also become eligible to contest polls and hold public office.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023