ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Friday vowed to pursue the Asghar Khan and Hudaibya Paper Mills cases against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Addressing a press conference at his Banigala residence, he accused the Sharifs of giving state secrets to American officials.

Reacting to a recent statement by the ousted PM in which he taunted the PTI chief by calling him ladla (blue-eyed boy), Mr Khan said not him but Mr Sharif was a ladla because the Asghar Khan case against him had not been heard by the Supreme Court for 25 years.

He said that in the Asghar Khan case, Mr Sharif was accused of having received money from retired Lt Gen Asad Durrani, then director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, to contest the 1990 general elections against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party. Former chief of air staff retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan, who passed away on Friday, could not win the case against the Sharifs, but his struggle had exposed people involved in rigging in the 1990 polls, the PTI chief added.

PTI chief accuses the Sharifs of selling state secrets to US officials

He said the Sharifs had become a security threat for the country and, therefore, the government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) should be dissolved immediately.

He said the PTI would file a review petition in the Supreme Court for reopening the Hudaibya Paper Mills case, adding that his party would present new evidence against the Sharifs which would justify reopening of the case.

Mr Khan criticised US President Donald Trump for an anti-Pakistan tweet and his administration’s punitive decisions against the country. He held the Sharifs responsible for these US actions against Pakistan, accusing them of providing national secrets to US officials.

He claimed that the leaked diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks had revealed that Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif had informed US senators that Pakistanis had been complicit in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and also assured them that he would take action against those involved in the attacks.

He claimed that, according to the WikiLeaks, the ousted PM had told US officials: “I [Nawaz Sharif] am your best friend and will remain your best friend forever.”

Mr Khan alleged that some PML-N leaders, including Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, provided protection to some extremist groups. He claimed that the Punjab CM had assured the US officials of taking action against Jamaatud Dawa’s madressahs, hospitals and other facilities and urged them to provide evidence against the organisation.

The PTI chief cast doubt over the role of the PML-N in the movement for restoration of superior court judges, claiming that Shahbaz Sharif had told the then US principal officer in Lahore, Brian Hunt, that former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was “a problematic figure who could create issues for the PML-N”.

“In order to get US assistance, Shahbaz Sharif presented four demands to Brian Hunt, including removal of the bar on a politician becoming chief minister or prime minister for the third term in Pakistan, restoration of his government in Punjab as governor rule had been imposed in the province when this meeting took place, an opportunity of face saving even if Iftikhar Chaudhry could not be successfully restored, and the last was the return of the prime minister’s powers given to the chief justice by former president Pervez Musharraf,” he said.

The PTI chairman alleged that Mr Sharif had always tried to malign the judiciary and the army. He claimed that during the recent visit of the Sharifs to Saudi Arabia they had told the Saudi leadership that the PML-N government wanted to send Pakistan Army’s troops to Yemen. However, former army chief and Commander of the Islamic Military Alliance retired Gen Raheel Sharif had not agreed to the proposal, he added.

Mr Khan criticised the ousted PM for what he called threatening to unveil faces behind alleged conspiracies against his government. Why was Mr Sharif silent when he was in power if there were conspiracies being hatched against his government, he asked.

The PTI chief also accused Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman of providing his services to US officials. He said he had always criticised US policies in the region and had been saying for long that Pakistan had been dragged in “an American war in Afghanistan”.

Mr Khan criticised the policies of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, saying he had no mandate to give a strong reaction to the US president’s anti-Pakistan tirade.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2018