The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said on Saturday that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif is a “coward fugitive returning under judicial asylum”.
A PTI spokesperson said in a statement the “state has buried shame, modesty, law and justice with its own hands” to pave the way for a “national criminal’s return” to the country from London.
Sharif returned to Pakistan on Saturday evening after living in a self-imposed exile in London for four years. He is hoping to make a comeback in the upcoming general elections and become the prime minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.
His smooth return to the country was ensured after he secured relief from the Islamabad High Court and an accountability court, averting the threat of immediate arrest upon landing.
Nawaz has been the prime minister of Pakistan three times and he was ousted from power in 2017. He was disqualified from holding any public office after his conviction in a corruption case.
Referring to the ouster of the Imran Khan-led government in April 2022, the PTI spokesperson said after the regime change conspiracy, the state elements after ridiculing the Constitution and democracy “tied the country and the nation in the chains of dictatorship and thrown it to the corrupt wolves”.
The statement further said that incarcerated PTI chairman Imran Khan launched a political struggle against the nexus between the criminals and the state 27 years ago.
It said that the nation is standing against thieves, mafia and plunderers under the leadership of Khan.
“The nation is ready to ‘welcome’ its criminal who has been ‘adopted’ by the state,” the PTI spokesperson said adding that the people will hold accountable the criminals who have robbed the nation from generation to generation.
The statement also reiterated the demand that an immediate holding of transparent, free and fair elections can steer the country out of crisis.
PPP Reacts To Nawaz Sharif’s Return
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said in a statement on Saturday that convict Nawaz Sharif’s Minar-e-Pakistan rally was disappointing.
In a statement issued by its media cell, the PPP said taking Sharif’s fingerprints with protocol at the airport raised questions about the credibility of the judiciary. It said one favourite has been put into the jail and the other has been brought back. It said that Sharif did not say anything about timely elections in his speech. It said that this convict is responsible for the destruction in Pakistan.
