LAHORE: Lashing out at Prime Minister Imran Khan, Opposition Leader and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif says politics of victimisation should be buried otherwise the future generations will not forgive us.

“The bureaucracy is not working because of the PTI government’s political vendetta. The Imran Khan government is consuming its energies in political victimisation of its opponents. Not a single penny of corruption has been proved against us during the two years of accountability,” the opposition leader in the National Assembly said in a flag hoisting ceremony in connection with the Independence Day in Model Town here on Friday. Shahbaz said the country could never become what it’s Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah had wanted to if divisive politics polarising the nation, persecution and victimisation in the name of accountability and beggary in the name of economic policies.

“The modern day battlefield is economic supremacy and countries lose and strengthen their sovereignty and independence not through wars but through economic independence and capacity. If Pakistan’s government continues to build debt from various countries and surrender its sovereignty to international financial institutions like the IMF, the dream of true independence will remain elusive,” he said.

“Nation, its political leaders and especially those in power will need to rise above their lust for power, privilege and money to work on a national agenda for the development and prosperity of Jinnah’s Pakistan,” he said, adding the same devotion, dedication and commitment to purpose was required like the PML-N government under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif had.

Shahbaz expressed worry over “how the 5.8 GDP has plummeted into negative 1.5 and how the country is now buried under twice the debt. How one Peshawar Metro consumed funds equal to three metros by the PML-N.

“Priorities need to changes, the accusatory politics, persecution in the name of prosecution, victimisation in the name of accountability only to corner the opposition must end,” he demanded.

He called for a more aggressive and effective foreign policy for the right of self-determination for the Kashmiris instead of chest-beating and cosmetic measures.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2020