“Mr Nisar always plays double game. He was in Lahore for a week where he successfully created a crisis in the Punjab Assembly,” said the Law Minister Babar Awan on Sunday. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Law Minister Babar Awan said on Sunday that Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, was working on a plan to send the Sharifs back to Saudi Arabia. Addressing a press conference in response to a blistering attack on President Asif Zardari and the PPP by Chaudhry Nisar earlier in the day, he advised PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif to monitor Chaudhry Nisar’s activities carefully because he had always worked to destabilise political governments. He termed him a major hurdle to sustained political reconciliation in the country.

“Mr Nisar always plays double game. He was in Lahore for a week where he successfully created a crisis in the Punjab Assembly and, according to my information, he was personally involved in preparation of placards and slogans,” the law minister claimed.

Calling him the mastermind of the attack on the Supreme Court by the PML-N in 1997, he said that Chaudhry Nisar later used his workers as scapegoats and got away with the crime.

Mr Awan also made it a Punjab versus Sindh case and criticised the PML-N leaders for promoting provincialism in the country.

He said that those who were seeking imposition of a judicial martial law in the country would face total disappointment.

“In either case, we are here to stay, and will neither run to Jeddah nor seek forgiveness from a military dictator,” the law minister said.

“Today Mr Nisar has not only spoken against the PPP leaders, but also humiliated Sindhi cap and Ajrak which the PPP as a party of the

federation will not allow to happen,” Mr Awan said.

He said that starting from Liaquat Ali Khan and from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto, Sindh had always picked bodies from Rawalpindi, the home town of Chaudhry Nisar, but the PPP always stayed clear of provincialism.

He said that gone were the days when the PML-N leaders with the help of military establishment would come to power because the present military leadership was ‘professional’; thus, nothing of that sort would be happening again.He referred to Chaudhry Nisar’s links with Gen Ziaul-Haq under whom he had served as parliamentary secretary for economic affairs.

He said Mr Nisar remained hand in glove with Gen Musharraf and shared regular drives in his blue Mercedes.

“Mr Nisar and his late brother, the then defence secretary, conspired to make Gen Musharraf the army chief, who was a junior officer,” he said.

He said the PML-N leaders were in the habit of bringing personal and family issues into politics that was the reason Mr Nisar had mentioned Ms Bakhtawar, elder daughter of President Zardari, in his press conference.

About the notice taken by the Supreme Court of the Sindh Assembly resolution against the apex court and strike in the province by the PPP workers, Mr Awan said that it was a sad day for him because despite his request the Supreme Court didn’t take suo moto notice of the Karsaz blast in which nearly 400 PPP workers had lost their lives.

Opinion

A state of chaos

A state of chaos

The establishment’s increasingly intrusive role has further diminished the credibility of the political dispensation.

Editorial

Bulldozed bill
Updated 22 May, 2024

Bulldozed bill

Where once the party was championing the people and their voices, it is now devising new means to silence them.
Out of the abyss
22 May, 2024

Out of the abyss

ENFORCED disappearances remain a persistent blight on fundamental human rights in the country. Recent exchanges...
Holding Israel accountable
22 May, 2024

Holding Israel accountable

ALTHOUGH the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor wants arrest warrants to be issued for Israel’s prime...
Iranian tragedy
Updated 21 May, 2024

Iranian tragedy

Due to Iran’s regional and geopolitical influence, the world will be watching the power transition carefully.
Circular debt woes
21 May, 2024

Circular debt woes

THE alleged corruption and ineptitude of the country’s power bureaucracy is proving very costly. New official data...
Reproductive health
21 May, 2024

Reproductive health

IT is naïve to imagine that reproductive healthcare counts in Pakistan, where women from low-income groups and ...