LAHORE: PML-N sup­remo Nawaz Sharif has once again called out the character who he claimed “orchestrated” his ouster as prime minister in 2017.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, the PML-N leader explicitly named former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa, but didn’t mention the former army chief, or his spymaster — whom he has named on several previous occasions.

He claimed senior judges were forced to issue orders, which led to his conviction and subsequent disqualification.

“They visited the residences of senior judges and threatened them to achieve the desired verdicts against me,” he said, adding that “the entire scheme was devised to bring their ladla [Imran Khan] into power.

PML-N supremo laments how he never inherited stable economy as prime minister

Since his arrival, Mr Sharif has refrained from naming former chief justices, COAS and ISI DG, over fears that it might attract the establishment’s attention.

However, over the past few weeks, he has rever­ted to his aggressive stance in an apparent attempt to shun the perception of his party being favoured by the military.

Mr Sharif is reportedly perturbed over his opponents labelling him as the new ladla and is keen to dispel this impression.

In his speech, the PML-N leader said he had received felicitation messages since the Islamabad High Court acquitted him.

However, he added that PML-N supporters and citizens also deserve praise “for not paying heed to the propaganda against him”.

On Tuesday, his conviction in the Al-Azizia case — one of the three refe­ren­ces instituted against him in light of the Panama Papers — was dec­lared void.

‘Three-year-long conspiracy’

The three-time premier recalled “how former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa asked Imran Khan to bring the petition on Panama Papers to him”.

He added that it was part of a conspiracy which started with Mr Khan’s prolonged sit-in in August 2014 and eventually ended with his lifetime disqualification in 2017 for “not receiving a salary from his son”.

He recalled how the joint investigation team to probe corruption allegations against him was “formed through WhatsApp calls” and how the three-member Supreme Court bench was constituted to monitor the investigation.

He rued that he was likened to the ‘Sicilian mafia and Godfather’ by the court.

According to Mr Sharif, while the punishment was granted to him, in reality, the people of Pakistan were punished through price hikes, which followed his ouster.

He claimed that Pakis­tan’s economy was growing at a rate of 6.1 pc when he was disqualified.

The country was also “out of the FATF black-list and had successfully finished an IMF programme”.

“Who dragged Pakis­tan back into darkness when we added 12,000MW of electricity?” Mr Sharif asked rhetorically.

“Why did Pakistan become a hub of terrorism again when militants were eliminated?”

According to the PML-N leader, he never inherited a stable economy, but each of the three times he was ousted from power, he left Pakistan in a much better state.

He asked the people to become “court and judge” on the day of general elections and “make their judgement for a prosperous Pakistan”.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023