ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday termed the speeches of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Nankana Sahib and Lahore “histrionics” and criticised the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for not considering his party’s proposal for changing the mode of Senate election.

Mr Khan, whose party had voted for Sadiq Sanjrani in the election for the office of Senate chairman, however, did not say a word about Mr Abbasi’s call for electing a consensus chairman.

While reiterating the allegations of horse-trading and vote purchase, the prime minister in his speeches had expressed concern over the election of Senate chairman and highlighted the need to elect a consensus chairman of Senate as it reflected the federation. Mr Abbasi had also blamed legal cases, including the one about Panama Papers, for bringing instability to the country claiming that the country would have been on the path of rapid progress otherwise.

Says if PML-N was so concerned, why it didn’t support PTI’s proposals to change the Senate election format

The PTI chairman through his official social media page on Twitter reminded Mr Abbasi that his party had proposed that the design of Senate election should be changed to prevent horse-trading and use of money in it, regretting that the proposal was not taken seriously by the ruling party.

“So now the PM Abbasi is crying about horse-trading and money deciding Senate elections. If his party was so concerned, why didn’t they support PTI’s proposals to change the Senate elections format to prevent exactly these shenanigans?” Mr Khan asked through his Twitter account.

Commenting on the prime minister’s claim that the legal cases, including the Panama Papers case, had brought instability to the country, Mr Khan put four questions before Mr Abbasi. “Four questions for PM Abbasi after his histrionics yesterday,” he tweeted.

“How could Panama case verdict have derailed development work when it indicted Nawaz Sharif for money laundering? Does PM Abbasi feel a money launderer should be above the law because of some imagined ongoing deve­lopment?” the PTI chief questioned.

“Does PM Abbasi regard the debilitating $10 billion money laundering per year that is destroying Pakistan a non-issue?” asked Mr Khan.

In a more direct question, the PTI chief then asked Mr Abbasi “if he thinks Nawaz Sharif is or is not involved in money laundering?” In the same tweet, he added, “If he [the prime minister] thinks he is, then how can Abbasi as PM condone crime of money laundering? If Abbasi thinks NS is not guilty of money laundering then he is more foolish than one thought”.

Mr Khan also wondered that if the prime minister of the country was not prepared to accept and respect judgement of the Supreme Court, how others could be expected to do so.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018