Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday again voiced his concerns over the 2018 general elections terming them totally rigged, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing the National Assembly session, he said this parliament is the mother of the 1973 constitution and this constitution is the symbol of unity in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that the Constitution of Pakistan was drafted under the leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and presented Pakistan as a strong, dynamic country before the world.

The Constitution will continue to guide and strengthen Pakistan no matter how much someone tries to meddle with it, said the PM.

PM said the jurisdiction and powers of all the institutes are clear in the constitution.

He rued that unfortunately democracy was never allowed to flourish in the country.

PM said he came to power in a constitutional way and it was the first time that a change has been brought through the parliament instead of invading the PM House and other constitutional institutes.

"The Results Transmission System (RTS) was closed at night and the counting of votes was stopped by the order of the former chief justice," he added.

The premier further said that the coalition government knew that Pakistan was on the verge of default, and for that, the government decided to save the state rather than focusing on political point-scoring.

He said he accepted the role of Prime Minister to save the country with the help of his other allies in the parliament despite knowing that it could destroy their politics. He said he only volunteered to take the role this time just to save the country that was heading towards a disaster due to the poor performance of the previous government in the last four years.

He said it was not the first time that he was offered the PM post.

He said in 1993 and 2002, he was offered the post by the establishment including the-then President and military ruler General Pervaiz Musharraf.

He said he knew that the premiership was not a bed of roses but despite that, he accepted the difficult role for the sake of the people of Pakistan.

He said when former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified over Iqama, a decision that he termed unjustified, in the Panama case, Nawaz proposed his name for the PM slot but he refused as he wanted to complete his projects in Punjab province to honour the mandate given to him by Punjab people.

He said he has many secrets in his heart and if he revealed them the people will be left flabbergasted.

PM Shehbaz said if they will not talk about the truth today, then when will they do?

He said they would not accept discrimination when a decision is made as the institutes cannot treat one person differently than others.

He said there was a Chief Justice in past who would issue the suo moto notices quite often to stop them from working.

He questioned why the foreign funding case is not being decided for eight years.

He said Imran Khan took the funding from India and Israel, not him and he was the foreign agent, not the coalition partners.

He said no one took any notice of the delay in the foreign funding case. He said there was a corruption of billions of rupees in Peshawar’s BRT project but the courts continued granting stay orders as the federal and the KPK government colluded together to avoid accountability.

He said similarly Malam Jabba case was closed and no one took notice.

He said NAB closed the case against Moonis Elahi but no one took notice.

He said the former government arrested the mothers and daughters of the opposition leaders while silently an NRO was given to Imran Khan’s sister.

He said it is on the record that Transparency International has declared the PTI government’s tenure as the most corrupt one in the history of Pakistan.

He said the institutes nurtured Khan for 15 years and worked day and night for their favourite one in an unprecedented way but he failed to deliver and put the country on the brink of collapse.

PM Shehbaz said that the coalition government was aware of the destruction caused by the rains and added that for this purpose, it has held meetings with all the provincial governments.

He said that the provincial governments are working day and night in areas where people lost their lives and suffered economically due to the rains.

"The federal government has decided to increase the relief package for those affected by the rains," the premier said, adding that a meeting will take place tomorrow to discuss the provision of relief to the people.

The premier said that the federal government will work with the principal governments to overcome the losses and help the farmers who suffered the most.

PM Shehbaz said he wanted to give relief to the people but the international prices of oil and gas were not in his power to control.

He questioned why the previous government did not buy LNG when its price was as low as $3.

PM Shehbaz berated the PTI-led government and said it took loans of more than Rs20,000 billion in three-and-a-half years, adding that millions of people lost their jobs and became homeless during the PTI's tenure.

He questioned who attacked the Parliament in 2014 which also delayed the Chinese president's visit which subsequently delayed the CPEC project and rued that no one took notice.

He said the president, prime minister and deputy speaker violated the constitution but no one took notice.

PM Shehbaz vowed continue to compete with Imran Khan's fascism and said they will fight till the end and would never accept defeat. 

 

More to follow….