ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has categorically said that he would not give in to the opposition’s demand for him to step down.
“Let me be very clear that I will not resign on opposition’s demand,” the premier told a select group of journalists at the PM Office on Wednesday.
He said it appeared as if the JUI-F chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, is backed by foreign elements, adding that even his charter of demands is not clear. “However, we will allow them to hold their ‘Azadi March’ protest [peacefully] in Islamabad.”
The JUI-F chief, with the support of all major opposition parties including PML-N, PPP and ANP, will march on the federal capital on October 31 to topple the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which he believes came into power through massive rigging in the 2018 elections.
The premier said the JUI-F’s likely sit-in in Islamabad is completely different from the one his party staged in 2014. “We came out on streets after exhausting all possible options … which platform Maulana [Fazl] has used [to address his grievances] before coming out on streets? … Attention is being diverted from the Kashmir issue because of this march. We must think who will benefit from all of this.”
Repeating his NRO mantra, Imran Khan said solution of all the opposition’s woes lies in NRO. “If today I allow the arrested politicians to go abroad, everything will become hunky dory,” he remarked.
Commenting on incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s health, PM Imran said only a court of law could take a decision on the former’s treatment outside the country. “Shehbaz Sharif says Imran Khan will be held responsible if anything happens to Nawaz Sharif … I am not a doctor or a judge and the matter of Maryam Nawaz’s meeting with her father would also be made by the court,” he remarked.
The prime minister added that he had directed Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to provide best possible medical facilities to Nawaz Sharif.
Premier Imran, while commenting on situation along the Line of Control (LoC), said India can stage a Pulwama-style drama as an excuse for a possible military offensive against Pakistan.
He said he had asked Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to keep his troops fully prepared for a befitting response to any such adventure.
“We have a relationship of trust with the military leadership.”
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2085723/1/
