LONDON: Nawaz Sharif refutes statements attributed to him about PM Shehbaz. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif said that the statements attributed to him about Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are negative, wrong and misleading.
In a Twitter post, Nawaz Sharif called the statements ‘negative, misleading and incorrect.’ “I remain hopeful that the sincere and tireless efforts by SS under the most challenging circumstances will bear fruit and he will steer the country out of the mess created by Imran Khan,” he tweeted late Thursday.
Nawaz Sharif said he hopes that PM Shehbaz’s tireless efforts, in an extremely difficult situation, will bear fruits and he [Shehbaz Sharif] will steer the country out of the crisis created by Chairman PTI Imran Khan.
Senior journalist Suhail Warraich has revealed, while speaking on a private TV channel on Thursday, that Nawaz Sharif is satisfied with the performance of neither Shehbaz Sharif nor Finance Minister Miftah Ismail. Warraich said Nawaz wants Shehbaz to review his policies.
Warraich said Nawaz repeatedly asked him to call on Shehbaz Sharif and say to him to revisit his economic policies. “Shehbaz Sharif should take the public into confidence about his economic policies.”
Replying to a question regarding his meeting with Nawaz Sharif in London, Warraich said that Nawaz Sharif is absolutely unhappy with the economic policies of the incumbent government. He said Nawaz is not impressed by Miftah’s performance.
Nawaz Sharif refutes statements attributed to him about PM Shehbaz.
Sohail Waraich quoted Nawaz as repeatedly saying, “I had already proposed to you not to form the government and go for the general elections.” Warraich said, “It appears that Nawaz Sharif has made up his mind that he wants economic policy from Ishaq Dar alone.
Warraich said Nawaz wants Ishaq Dar to work on the economy. He also said Nawaz doesn’t seem to be reposing trust in Miftah Ismail as he [Nawaz] believes that the finance minister doesn’t know much about economic policies.
Nawaz’s next narrative will be directed against the judiciary, not the army, said the senior analyst while telling details of his meeting with the PML-N chief in London. He said Nawaz will write a letter to the Supreme Court of Pakistan about the injustices meted out to him.
Responding to a query regarding Maryam Nawaz, Waraich said that Nawaz Sharif is very pleased with her. “Maryam complies with what I say,” Warraich quoted Nawaz as saying.
“Nawaz said Imran Khan is reaping the crop which he himself sowed,” he added.
Meanwhile, according to a Dawn report, Nawaz’s clarification comes amid indications of an internal rift within the party.
Signs of the purported friction were visible as early as May, less than two months into a PML-N coalition coming to power following the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who was once seen as the party supremo’s heir apparent, had openly endorsed at a May 19 rally in Sargodha Imran’s demand for fresh elections while the new coalition setup was struggling in the face of an economic crisis.
The new regime, since the start of its term, was presented with grave economic challenges and had been under pressure to make a hard choice between going for early elections or taking tough decisions to save the country from default at the cost of losing political capital.
At the Sargodha rally, Maryam had been of the view that it was wiser to opt for fresh elections than burden the masses with price hikes.
“Nawaz Sharif is listening to my speech in London. He will say goodbye to the government but not pass on the economic burden to the people of Pakistan,” she had said.
Maryam’s remarks had come a day after the ruling coalition decided to complete its term, which ends in August 2023.
More recently, there were reports of Nawaz being upset over the PML-N’s loss in the crucial by-polls on 20 seats of the Punjab Assembly — a defeat that paved the way for his party to lose the country’s most populous province to the PTI.
According to a Dawn report, Shehbaz’s son and Punjab’s embattled chief minister at the time Hamza Shehbaz left for London earlier this month to reportedly give an explanation to Nawaz for the PML-N’s loss in the by-polls and him losing the CM’s office to Parvez Elahi, the joint candidate of the PTI-PML-Q alliance.
“Hamza will have to satisfy his uncle for his poor performance being the CM and his father’s flawed strategy in the face of Khan’s aggressive campaign during the by-polls,” a PML-N insider told Dawn.
Conjecture about rifts in the PML-N found further ground after the Shehbaz government announced yet another increase in the price of petrol on August 15.
Following the raise, Maryam tweeted that Nawaz had strongly opposed the decision and even said he couldn’t burden the people further and that he was not in favour of the decision.
A day later, a Dawn editorial said: “It is unfortunate, then, that his (Finance Minister Miftah Ismail) main opposition has come not from the PTI but from a camp within his own party that remains beholden to the ideas of former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
“It seems that Dar has the ear of party supremo Nawaz Sharif and that he has been filling it with some troubling opinions about how the economy really ought to be managed. The Nawaz camp’s hostility towards Ismail also seems to flow from Dar’s well-known contempt for his younger counterpart.”
And it was as recent as yesterday that another PML-N leader, Abid Sher Ali, criticised Ismail for his “anti-people” policies, urging him to think of the masses who were “agonised” because of inflated electricity bills and poverty.
Addressing a press conference alongside party leader Talal Chaudhry in Faisalabad, he said, “I have appealed to Mian Nawaz Sharif to intervene and get it (increase in electricity prices) reversed.”
“Mr prime minister, you have always delivered in Punjab and your sympathies should reflect in your measures, otherwise we will not be able to visit constituencies,” he added, warning against pushing the country towards a civil war.