ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz on Thursday described PLM-N supremo Nawaz Sharif as Altaf -2 and equated the style and contents of their speeches.

The minister challenged the opposition to go ahead with their threat of submitting resignations from assemblies.

“We also said this and actually submitted our resignations which were not approved. But I ask the opposition members to submit their resignations which will be approved even before they reach their homes,” the minister said.

Addressing a news conference here, the minister criticised Nawaz Sharif and said: “A person who had been prime minister for three times should be ashamed of inciting people against state institutions and propagate revolution against the very nation that made him the premier. Is this war mongering against courts and army justified?”Senator Faraz said Nawaz Sharif should not have dodged the system and use medical grounds as an excuse to leave the country.

“We all saw his charged speech today, do you think he is a sick and a weak man?”

He said Nawaz Sharif should submit before the law and explain to courts and the nation as to how he amassed assets of billions of dollars and laundered the money abroad.

He said Nawaz Sharif had been charged with amassing huge amount of money through illegal means and the PTI government had only asked two questions from him.

“First, how did you get so much wealth and, second, how did the money go abroad if it was not money laundering. But in response, he was only distracting the general public by trying to become Nelson Mandela.”

Senator Faraz said the government would ensure law and order and nobody would be allowed to make fiery speeches.He said the issue in the country was that laws are different for the rich and powerful. The implementation of laws for Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain was completely contrary to what the ordinary citizens face.

He said the nation was still awaiting answers from Nawaz Sharif who had been the prime minister for three times and was now trying to undermine institutions and make democracy and elections controversial.

The minister said all politics of Nawaz Sharif and his family was to protect the ill gotten wealth and not in support of democracy or the masses.

“It was the same system that bought you (Nawaz Sharif) to power and you did not care about democracy at that time, instead you were happy with all the institutions.”

The minister said it was not the divine right of Sharif family to rule the country, adding there was apparently no difference between Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain.

Regarding the claim by Nawaz Sharif that the elections 2018 were rigged, the minister recalled that the PTI had launched a movement after the 2013 elections and demanded opening of four constituencies for verification.

He said according to figures of the Election Commission, 487 petitions were filed in 2013 while 287 petitions were filed after the 2018 elections and 90 of them were for National Assembly seats and 45 of them filed by PTI. He said in 16 constituencies, the PTI lost by a margin of a few hundred or few thousand votes.

He said the PML-N did not raise issues related to elections in the National Assembly nor did it launch any protest.

“This is because the issue is not about election results or democracy but to protect the family from accountability,” he said.

“Similarly, the opposition did not support legislation related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and now Nawaz Sharif is trying to put pressure on institutions. But he would not get any relief as nobody is above the law in this government.”

He also called the opposition leaders professional ‘liars’ and said Nawaz Sharif and family was leading them in falsification of facts.

“Maryam (Nawaz) maintains that she belongs to a hereditary rich class, whereas her uncle Shahbaz Sharif recently said his father was a poor farmer,” Senator Faraz said, adding: “Now all this is to deceive the general public.”

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2020