ISLAMABAD: As the controversy surrounding the Senate elections deepened after the allegation that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had been “ordered from the top” to vote for Sadiq Sanjrani and Saleem Mandviwalla for the top two Senate posts, Pakistan Muslim League-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif on Saturday challenged PTI chief Imran Khan to identify those who had “ordered him to vote” for the candidates and explain his motives.

Talking to reporters in London after discussing the issue of a caretaker set-up with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the defunct finance minister Ishaq Dar, the former premier referred to Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq’s statement that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had told him that the PTI had been “ordered from the top” to vote for Mr Sanjrani and Mr Mandviwalla.

Mr Sharif said the PTI chief by voting for the Pakistan Peoples Party candidate in the Senate polls proved that he and other political parties had always been “looking for the umpire’s finger” and “orders from the top”. He claimed that PML-N was the only party that took dictation from the people of Pakistan.

Controversy deepens after JI chief’s charge that PTI got ‘orders from the top’ to vote for Senate chairman

The PML-N supreme leader said the way the Balochistan Assembly was “rigged and his party taken over” and then in the manner the Senate elections were held, the Senate chairman and deputy chairman stood discredited, especially after PTI’s confession of horse-trading.

The former premier is set to return to Pakistan between the night of Sunday and Monday after an accountability court rejected his application seeking week-long exemption from personal appearance in Avenfield properties case.

PM, Nawaz discuss caretaker set-up

Earlier, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met his party boss in London where they discussed the prevailing political situation and the caretaker government. Sources in the PML-N told Dawn that Mr Dar was also present in the “informal meeting” during which the prime minister briefed Mr Sharif about the recent consultations with Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on the issue of the caretaker set-up.

The source said Mr Sharif directed the prime minister to make every effort to ensure that the elections were held on time. They said the criteria for the selection of the caretaker prime minister and names of probables also came under discussion. They agreed that they would make every effort to nominate the caretaker prime minister with a consensus, the sources added.

The prime minister had been in the UK on an official visit to attend the Commonwealth Summit whereas Mr Sharif had reached London with his daughter Maryam Nawaz on April 18 to see his wife and MNA-elect Kulsoom Nawaz who has been undergoing cancer treatment. The sources in the Sharif family said doctors had declared the present condition of Kulsoom Nawaz “critical and life-threatening” after re-emergence of the disease.

However, the sources said, Mr Sharif decided to return because he did not want to give an impression as if he had left the country to avoid the courts.

PML-N Information Secretary and Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan, when contacted, confirmed to Dawn that Mr Sharif would arrive in Islamabad through Qatar Airways just hours before the hearing of the Avenfield properties reference against him and Maryam Nawaz in the accountability court of Islamabad.

Mr Sharif told reporters that he was being put under immense pressure but he was not the one who would stay out of Pakistan the way the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had been. “There is a difference between me and Musharraf. People are seeing all this,” he said.

The ex-PM said his case was the first of its kind being taken up by National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying that NAB previously used to take up cases of corruption and kickbacks though he was not facing any of these charges. He said appeared before the accountability court five times a week despite the fact that he had not been involved in corruption of any kind, while several others got to have their hearings once in three months.

Terming all the cases politically motivated, Mr Sharif said: “All these efforts are being made ahead of next elections to deny PML-N a level-playing field.” He said his speeches had been recently “banned” while such censorship had not been witnessed even during martial law. “This must worry the whole nation. We are witnessing the worst kind of censorship and ban on media and freedom of speech.”

Calling it “pre-poll rigging”, Mr Sharif said he was hopeful that the nation would stop such practice with full force through use of vote.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during a brief chat with journalists reportedly claimed that the PML-N would emerge victorious in the general elections with the slogan of “Give Sanctity to Ballot”. However, he avoided answering questions related to the accountability court’s decision of not granting weeklong exemption to the Sharifs from personal appearance in Avenfield properties reference.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018