ISLAMABAD, Mar 8 (APP):Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Tuesday said the PTI and its allies would defeat the “ill-fated” opposition, which, he alleged, was resorting to a foul play of horse-trading in the Parliament.
A humiliating defeat was the opposition’s fate as its no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan was doomed to fail, he said while addressing a news conference in response to a joint presser of the opposition parties’ top leaders.
He said whether it was Asif Ali Zardari, Shehbaz Sharif or Fazl-ur-Rehman, they all knew the art of sale-purchase (horse-trading) and wanted to use it for toppling the democratically elected government.
And, to cover up their horse-trading, the opposition leaders were citing a recent statement of PM Imran Khan about the European Union and the West out of its context, he said. “They are blaming that the prime minister has given such a statement that is against the European Union.”
The PM, he added, had acted as the head of a sovereign state as evident from his statement that Pakistan would be partner in peace, not in war.
He regretted that the opposition leaders had no vision about the country’s independent foreign policy, national economy and the problems faced by the common man. “They have the only tension about their indictment in corruption cases. They want to avoid it at any cost as their cases are getting matured.”
The SAPM said the opposition’s was worried about their corruption cases and subsequent punishments after due court proceedings, so they were out to sabotage all those things even by becoming stooges of the foreign elements, who wanted to create anarchy in the country.
Despite their agitation, he made it clear that PM Imran would never give the opposition parties any NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance]. “There is a message of Prime Minister Imran Khan for the opposition again that they will not be given any NRO rather a defeat for the 37th time in the no-confidence motion.”
Gill vowed that the PTI government and its allies would give the opposition an exemplary defeat in the no-trust-move in the next week, sending them packing once for all. “By the grace of Allah Almighty, the government will remain intact, and the opposition will be given a befitting response to their all moves.”
He said Shehbaz Sharif would have to give answer of Rs16 billion deposited in the bank account of peon Maqsood, who worked in his Ramzan Sugar Mills.
The SAPM said the PTI formed a coalition government after getting 116 seats in the 2018 election and made utmost efforts to implement its ‘unique manifesto’ of national development and well-being of the downtrodden segments of the society.
When the PTI government came into power, he said, the national economy was in a shambles collapse as the previous regime in its last days even tried to lay such ‘mines’ [adoption of wrong economic policies] to create problems for the new set-up. “But despite all these odd, we in collaboration with our allies made efforts to correct all the wrongdoings of the past regimes.”
He said the PTI government remained committed to an across the board accountability, and tried to recover the looted national wealth and bring the culprits to the task.
Gill was of the view that the PM had been saying repeatedly that when the noose would be tightened around the corrupt elements, they would get united against the government.
He said the PM’s prediction had proven correct as the entire nation saw the group of corrupt people sitting together and speaking against the democratically elected government. Zardari, Shehbaz and Fazl-ur-Rehman were sitting together but with different justifications for the move against the PM.
One of them, he said, was saying that the no-trust-move was submitted because the PM had given a statement against the EU and the West, and the second opined that Imran Khan had propagated the ideology of the West in Pakistan, while the third stated that the prime minister had annoyed the West.
He said during the PPP government (since its inception in 2008), there were more than 400 drone attacks in the Pakistani territories, but it kept criminal silence, rather said it was not bothered about the collateral damage in the strikes.
The opposition parties always put the national integrity and sovereignty at the stake, Gill added.
Contrary to them, he said, Prime Minister Imran Khan told the world with absolute clarity that Pakistan being a responsible state would be the partner in peace missions but not in others’ war.
Due to an effective foreign policy of the PTI government, he said, Pakistan after a long time had good relations with the United States, Britain and other countries on the basis of equality. The world community and institutions praised the leadership qualities of prime minister especially dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
The SAPM said the head of European Union had recently telephoned PM Imran Khan and asked to play the role of a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to find a peaceful resolution.
