LAHORE: “Nawaz Sharif wants to leave the country before the end of government term and judgments on corruption references are delivered,” Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri said on Friday to senior party leaders by telephone.

He said Nawaz was ready to escape before the end of the PML-N government’s term. Instead of making party his shield, the former prime minister must provide money trail of his London assets to accountability courts.

He said the so-called tiger who was intimidating state institutions few days back, now wanted to surrender but there should be no negotiation with plunderers and blackmailers.

He said the bereaved families of the Model Town massacre wanted the Sharif brothers tried in an anti-terrorist court.

He said the mastermind of the Model Town massacre deserved no legal or constitutional clemency, and any such concession to him would amount to providing justification to all those who had declared war against the state.

If such culprits of the state got any concession in the guise of negotiations, accountability of high-ups in Pakistan would become a dream.

He said the disqualified group tried to divide the judiciary and the army as they had done in 1997 and 1999; in an effort to blackmail state institutions, they threatened to spill the beans but failed to achieve their goal. Now disappointed and scared, Nawaz Sharif wanted to escape before May 31.

Mr Qadri added that political parties were protesting at the privatisation of the PIA and the Pakistan Steel Mills, while the Punjab government was trying to sell major hospitals and educational institutes in the name of outsourcing.

He said bid price of Jinnah, Ganga Ram, Mayo and major hospitals had been fixed, and once the private mafia took over these hospitals, poor masses would not be entitled to have cheapest medicines like paracetamol free of cost.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2018