LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he is fully prepared to counter the no-confidence motion in the National Assembly and in the same breath, threatened the opposition parties: “Are you ready for what I will do to you when no-confidence [motion] will fail?”

“I will continue to fight against the looters and dacoits till the last drop of my blood,” said Mr Khan while addressing a public gathering at Mailsi, Vehari district, on Sunday.

The premier lambasted the opposition leadership — Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman — one by one for being perpetrators to bring no-confidence against him. He called them ‘looters’ of national wealth and ‘coward’ leaders and alleged they compromised Pakistan’s sovereignty by acting on the instructions of their ‘foreign masters’ during their rule.

He told the gathering that the Constitutional Amendment Bill would be tabled in the lower house — a step to carve out a new province from the most-populated Punjab — and he would “see whether the PML-N and PPP cheaters will support this cause in the National Assembly or stay away despite their own commitments with the people of south Punjab”.

Maryam reacts to remarks against party leadership, tells Imran he’s already lost

Mr Khan ridiculed ex-premier Nawaz Sharif for gathering sympathies through cries and wailing to eventually escape from the country, called ex-chief minister Shehbaz as ‘money launderer’ and former president Asif Zardari as ‘disease’ for getting an ordinance promulgated to save their looted wealth.

The PM mocked Maulana Fazlur Rehman as ‘Fazlu’, asking him to think about the life hereafter as he was already quite old.

Sharply reacting to his remarks, the opposition PML-N described his mental condition as ‘hysteria’ foreseeing that the power was slipping out of his hands.

While addressing PM Khan, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz tweeted: “Why falling apart and sounding hysterical? The game has only just begun, dude and you have already lost it! Show some sportsman spirit man!”

In another tweet, she ridiculed him stating: “Seeing power slipping out of his hands, one loses senses, forgets moral values, even dignity of the premier office and grace of being an enemy”.

“He used abusive language against all and then added that the Riasat-e-Madina was built on moral values,” she chided while tagging Mr Khan in her tweet.

The prime minister in his speech said the PML-N supremo was a convict and an absconder, who “deceived the Pakistan government and nation through wailings about his health”. He asked the PML-N workers whether they would like to see a leader who escaped the country instead of facing courts and conviction. “Three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons say they are not Pakistan’s citizens,” said Mr Khan while expressing his disappointment.

He vowed to cut the petrol price by half if he managed to bring back the ‘looted’ wealth from the PML-N supremo.

Calling PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif as money launderer, PM Khan asked whether he would tell that how and from where Rs3.75 billion got transferred to the bank account of his peon, Maqsood. “Shehbaz Sharif will be compelled to explain how Rs16 billion came to his accounts,” he asserted.

Calling former president Zardari as a ticket-seller at a cinema, PM Khan said he had got NROs twice to save his ill-gotten wealth and instituted cases against PML-N leadership.

Labeling JUI-F President Maulana Fazalur Rehman as ‘a blackmailer’, the prime minister said the Maulana and his age was same and added, “It is time to retrospect and pray for a better life hereafter.”

This ‘gang of dacoits’ had been looting Pakistan during the past 35 years and became filthy rich, he said, while the masses became poorer in the past three decades.

Stating that the state of Madina was built on moral values, the PM said the looters were enjoying their turns in power corridors and urged the media to expose them and stand with truth.

Mr Khan said Pakistan was on the verge of bankruptcy when the PTI formed the government. He said the government faced the coronavirus pandemic that surfaced once in 100 years and eventually the global inflation. “The PTI government has survived all these crises through its prudent policies and governance and acknowledged world-wide,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2022