ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) strongly criticised the ‘VVIP protocol’ given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif upon his return to Pakistan, alleging that all federal and Punjab government resources were used to manage the return of a ‘convicted absconder’.

However, the party claimed that people would hold the ‘convicted prisoner’ accountable if no one else would.

PTI secretary general Omar Ayub Khan said the convict was being unjustly and unlawfully facilitated in everything.

“A convicted prisoner got VVIP protocol and the State Room opened at Islamabad Airport to receive him,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s legal system has been completely destroyed by PML-N.

Moonis slams disparity with Imran over biometrics; Hammad claims ‘disinterested crowds’ began leaving jalsa before main speech ended

Commenting on photos of Nawaz providing his biometrics at the airport, the PTI secretary general remarked ‘one country, two constitutions!’

“This picture is not only of Nawaz Sharif’s biometrics, but of the funeral of Pakistan’s judicial system. The whole world had seen the coercion and treatment of Imran Khan for the same biometrics,” he maintained.

State machinery

Commenting on the return of the elder Sharif after his four-year self-imposed exile, PTI senior leader Moonis Elahi said his return had been managed.

“Never in the history of Pakistan, a convicted absconder has been welcomed like this,” he said.

Apparently, he said, court staff went to the airport to get his biometric attendance done, while in a sharp contrast, another prime minister (Imran Khan) was picked up from court while giving his biometrics for attendance.

Mr Elahi claimed the Punjab government had instructed all deputy commissioners to provide transport as well as ensure attendance of gove­rnment employees such as ‘patwaris’. “King of Patwaris is coming so all patwaris must attend!!!,” he commented.

PTI leaders criticised the PML-N for ‘using all federal and Punjab government resources to manage the return of a convicted absconder’.

They said people of Lahore completely rejected the PML-N and its absconding leader’s homecoming after four years of self-exile, which began with a request for medical treatment in London on a Rs100 affidavit.

They alleged that the establishment fully supported the party’s call so that people from across the country reach Punjab and gather at the jalsa venue, Minar-i-Pakistan, in Lahore.

The PTI supporters ran two twitter trends against the PML-N supremo and its power show and posted videos.

Revenge claim

After Mr Sharif’s speech, former PTI spokesman Dr Shahbaz Gill commented the PML-N supremo has “dampened the hopes” of those who thought his “meanness might have scaled down”.

Referring to the increase in power, gas and petrol rates, Mr Gill commented that the elder Sharif was criticising the Shehbaz Sharif government’s tenure. “Lost affection for his brother,” Mr Gill remarked.

PTI central Punjab general secretary Hammad Azhar said the crowd at the venue of the public meeting remained disinterested and scattered.

He posted a video showing people leaving the venue even before the PML-N supremo could complete his speech.

Mr Azhar also posted another video showing participants in jalsa eating biryani and throwing the disposable plates and lots of biryani in the ground and commented ‘reality of the jalsa’.

London Plan

In another statement issued by the PTI, party spokesperson deplored that the state buried all the decency, modesty, law and justice to facilitate the unhindered and smooth homecoming of a person under a ‘London Plan’, without elaborating the details of the alleged plan.

He stated that after the regime change conspiracy, the Constitution and democracy-weary state elements tied the country and the nation in the chains of dictatorship and threw it to corrupt wolves.

He said PTI Chairman Imran Khan had decided 27 years ago to launch an unprecedented political struggle against such partnership between crime and the state.

The PTI spokesperson made it clear that under the leadership of Mr Khan, the conscious nation was standing firmly in the face of forces that conquered the country through conspiracy, coercion, state power, thieves, thugs, fraudsters and mafias.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2023