In Turkey on a three-day visit, Sharif took to Twitter to give Khan a piece of his mind
By Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday lambasted former Prime Minister Imran Khan over his cynical remarks about Pakistan’s prospects without him in power.
“While I am in Turkey inking agreements, Imran Niazi is making naked threats against the country”, Sharif said in a tweet Thursday morning.” If at all any proof was needed that Niazi is unfit for public office, his latest interview suffices. Do your politics but don’t dare to cross limits & talk about division of Pakistan.”
Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was referring to controversial remarks made in a television interview by the man he supplanted in power in April.
In an interview with anchorperson Sami Abraham for Bol News talk show Tajzia Wednesday night, Khan accentuated on ‘the establishment’ making the ‘right decisions’ or else it would lose its nuclear deterrence and would disintegrate as a country.
The Chairman of his own Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Khan said the current political situation was a problem for the country as well as the establishment. “If the establishment doesn’t make the right decisions then I can assure [you] in writing that [before everyone else] they and the army will be destroyed because what will become of the country if it goes bankrupt,” he said.
In a separate statement shared by the Twitter handle of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) party, the PM said Imran’s remarks were evidence the PTI chief was “involved in a conspiracy, not politics”.
He said Imran was spreading “chaos” due to his “frustration and sick mentality”, and that his statement was similar to those of Pakistan’s enemies.
“This is not a statement but a conspiracy to spark the fire of anarchy and division in the country”, PM Sharif said. “Losing power does not mean that you wage a war against Pakistan, its unity and its institutions”.
The PM warned Khan not to “attack” the federation and country’s institutions. “Don’t exceed the limits [defined] by the law and Constitution.”
The younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif said the nation would not accept such “nefarious” plans at any cost and would not let them succeed.
He vowed to defeat such “impure” aims.
Khan’s remarks have attracted broad criticism from across Pakistan’s political spectrum with political leaders of every stripe raising their voice in outrage against what they say is a reflection of Khan’s agitated state of mind since his ouster from power.
The former prime minister, who rose to power in 2018, was shown the door on April 10, 2022 in a parliamentary vote of no confidence moved by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of elven political parties of Pakistan headed up by Sharif’s PML-N and joined by former President Asif Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
He responded by flying into a fiery rage, storming city after city across the nation to make blistering speeches against his detractors and demanding the government to immediately announce general elections.
His drive culminated in a failed attempt to lead a long march on Islamabad on May 25. He did arrive in the capital at the head of a few thousand supporters, but called off his planned sit-in until the announcement of a date for general elections.
His movement seems to have fizzled out since, with him holed up in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where his party is in power.
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