P.M. Shehbaz Sharif. Photo courtesy PID
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday criticized recent statements of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, accusing him of seeking power at the cost of the country’s foundations.
“Imran’s recent diatribe against parliamentary democracy is the latest in a series of attacks that fly in the face of how democracy functions in modern nation-states,” he wrote in a posting on Twitter. “His politics is aimed at making his way to power even if it means undermining foundations this country stands on,” he added.
Earlier this week, Khan told a private broadcaster that a parliamentary democracy “only works in Anglo-Saxon countries” because their “morals” are of a higher caliber than those of Pakistanis. He also reiterated his desire for a “presidential system,” and continued his abuse of his political rivals, accusing them of being “corrupt” and unsuitable for governance.
Subsequently, in a separate interview, the PTI chief hinted at withdrawing his threatened dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies if the ruling coalition agreed to conduct elections by the end of March next year—essentially making a conditional offer for talks in a bid to pressure the government. He said if the government did not agree to an election date within this month, the PTI would dissolve the assemblies under its control.
Khan also made it clear—after spending years praising him—that granting an extension to former chief of Army staff (COAS) Gen. (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa was his “biggest mistake.” Claiming he had always trusted the former Army chief, he said he had been unaware that he was being lied to and betrayed. This followed a statement by PTI ally, Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) leader Moonis Elahi, in which he said Gen. (retd.) Bajwa had urged his party to remain with Khan at the time of the no-confidence vote in April.