Top government ministers on Monday held a press conference, a day after the country’s major opposition parties announced launching of a three-phased anti-government movement under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi asked the opposition not to “drag national institutions into politics”.
“It is not good for the country, it is not in Pakistan’s interest,” he said.
His comments come a day after PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, while addressing the opposition’s multiparty conference via video link from London, alleged that there was “a state above the state in the country”. Breaking his over two-year-long silence, Nawaz declared that the opposition’s struggle was not against Prime Minister Imran Khan but against “those who had imposed such an incapable person” upon the nation through a manipulated electoral process.
Information Minister Shibli Faraz said Nawaz in his speech yesterday had raised suspicions about the election process because his party was unable to garner votes in the 2018 elections and because he is “not used to a free and fair election”.
Responding to his allegations, Faraz said: “The elections in which he was elected the prime minister thrice were right but because in this one he was unable to form the government, he is raising these questions.”
“When things are according to their plan, they are okay, but when the opposite happens they are not,” he added, accusing the opposition of “spreading confusion and making things controversial”.
The minister said “they are not helping democracy and are trying to discredit a political setup which they claim to own.”
He said the opposition members could carry out election reforms if they had any objections. “Don’t make the election and democracy controversial, this country has done you a lot of favours,” he added while addressing the opposition.
Faraz also said Nawaz in his address on Sunday looked “hale and hearty” even though he claimed to be ill.
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