ISLAMABAD: The country’s two major opposition parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for his latest outburst against their leadership at a public meeting in Ghotki, saying it was “a speech by the head of a failed government”.

Reacting to the prime minister’s statement asking the opposition leaders to go for plea bargain, the opposition parties dubbed Mr Khan a spokesman for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying his speech had put a big question mark on the ongoing accountability in the country.

Take a look: PM Khan tells PPP, PML-N leaders to 'return nation's money' if they want reprieve

Addressing a rally in Ghotki, Sindh, the prime minister had stated that the government would not let the PML-N and the PPP leaders off the (accountability) hook until they returned the country’s looted money.

Say Imran’s speech in Ghotki has put a big question mark on ongoing accountability

“This country will not forgive you. You have only one route: give the country’s money back and we will leave you be,” the premier had reportedly said, adding that earlier the leaderships of the two parties used to call each other corrupt but now both were trying to come together to “save democracy”. He had “challenged” the two opposition parties to do whatever they wanted to do, saying the government would not back down from holding them accountable.

“Are you the prime minister of Pakistan or chairman of NAB or its spokesman?” asked PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb in her reaction to the speech.

Ms Aurangzeb, who had served as information minister in the previous PML-N government, said the prime minister was offering plea bargain to the opposition leaders as he had been trying to strike a deal for his sister Aleema Khan and party leader Jahangir Khan Tareen. She alleged that Mr Khan was trying to blackmail the opposition as he wanted to save the “theft” committed by Mr Tareen and his sister.

Ms Aurangzeb claimed that not even a single charge of corruption had been proved against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif.

The PML-N leader was of the opinion that the prime minister was criticising the opposition in the public meeting as he had nothing to show for the performance of his nine-month-old government. “In his speech, the prime minister failed to highlight even a single achievement of his government,” she said.

Ms Aurangzeb also blasted the economic policies of the government, saying the government was taking revenge from the public for its own failure to collect tax revenue. She said the prime minister should tell the nation that it had already acquired Rs3,000 billion loan whereas inflation had already crossed 8.5 per cent mark.

In a separate statement, PPP’s vice-president Senator Sherry Rehman said that the prime minister’s speech showed that the ongoing accountability process was being carried out at its behest. She alleged the accountability process was an excuse to rollback the 18th Constitutional Amendment and the government wanted to blame this historic amendment for its own failure.

The PPP leader said that her party from day one had been stating that the government wanted to roll back the 18th Amendment and the prime minister had now made a formal announcement. She said the PPP would resist all efforts to roll back this historic amendment which had granted autonomy to the provinces.

Ms Rehman said the prime minister’s speech was proof that the government had no policy at all and had failed on every front. She also criticised the prime minister for not giving importance to parliament, asking him to tell the nation as to how many sessions of the National Assembly he had attended so far.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2019