LAHORE: Leaders of the PML-N said Thursday that their party was ready to work with PTI members who were not involved in the violence on May 9. They also said that the cases of former premiers Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif must be decided before the February 8 elections so that people can tell the difference between honest and dishonest leaders.
They also said that Nawaz planned to set up a national government after the election.
Javed Latif and Ataullah Tarar, both well-known members of the PML-N, held different news conferences in Lahore, where they mostly spoke out against Imran Khan, the chairman of the PTI. This shows how worried people are in the party.
It looks like the PTI is the only opposition party whose leaders, mostly Imran, are deeply involved in a lot of cases. The only leaders who aren’t involved are those who have loudly criticized him and left his party.
People who work for the PTI don’t even know yet if they will be able to run for office under the party’s banner or not.
The PML-N and the PPP have both started their election campaigns. The PTI, on the other hand, is still waiting for the go-ahead from important people to safely start doing any political work again.
To the media after a meeting at the party headquarters, Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N made it clear that they would like to include all parties, including the PTI, but not those who were involved in the riots on May 9.
People in the PML-N who were participating in the Black Day violence were called a “gang” by the leader of the party. They promised to “sit with all other players” for the good of the country.
In response to a question, Sanaullah said that Nawaz would meet with the leaders of all major groups, including Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the PML-Q.
When asked about the PML-N supremo’s court battles, he said that Nawaz would run for office and that there were no legal problems in his way.
For this reason, it is important to note that those who have publicly criticized PTI have left Imran’s party to join IPP or PTIP, while the rest of its members are in jail. If the people accused of what happened on May 9 are taken away, it looks like there is no one to talk to.
Speaker at a news conference for the PML-N, Javed Latif, who was a federal minister without any portfolios during the PDM government, said that their party leader was being accused of speeding up justice.
He said that this shouldn’t happen because justice should always be done quickly.
Latif said that Nawaz and even Imran should be given justice before the polls so that people could tell the difference between a criminal and a good person.
He told the people not to mix up a politician with extremists who are fighting state institutions, which was a subtle reference to the head of the PTI.
Latif responded to another charge that his party had given up on their slogan of “citizen supremacy” by saying that “give respect to vote” (vote ko izzat do) meant to respect the Constitution and allow the institutions to work within the limits set by the law.
According to him, the organizations had promised not to get involved in politics, and this was shown in how they were acting now.
When asked about the idea that PML-N is the new king’s party, Latif said that the institutions should not let anyone make that kind of impact.
He also said that these views shouldn’t be given any more weight and shouldn’t be able to make it seem like the elections in 2024 will be the same as the ones in 2018.
Latif wanted everyone to have the same chances, but he also said that people who attacked military bases would not get away with it.
He said that he hoped the PML-N would win the upcoming elections by a huge margin. But he also said that Nawaz would put together a national government with all the local and national parties to deal with the many problems the country is facing.
During the first part of the news conference, the PTI leader was criticized for his politics and leadership, and the events of May 9 were compared to acts of terrorism.
Latif criticized President Arif Alvi for sending a letter to Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to make sure everyone had a fair chance. He asked President Arif Alvi to first admit and apologize for “attacking PTV, dissolving assembly and trying to patch things up between the ‘PTI’s mastermind of May 9’ and former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.”
Instead, he said, President Alvi should work for Nawaz to have a level playing field so that all the legal requirements are met before the polls and demand that all cases against the PTI be dealt with as soon as possible.
It was he who called the president a partner in “PTI-led terrorism.”
Ataullah Tarar, the Deputy Secretary General of the PML-N, also held a news conference and criticized the chairman of the PTI for allegedly helping Farah Shehzadi, who he said was running a corruption ring in Punjab with the help of Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi.
It was said by him that the PTI leader’s tax pardon wasn’t for the benefit of businesses, but for Farah to be able to hide the money she had stolen from Imran’s government.
He also said that Imran made Farah and her husband leave the country when he saw that the vote of no confidence against his government had been successful.
