LAHORE: Former Punjab senior minister and disgruntled member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Abdul Aleem Khan has accused interim Prime Minister Imran Khan of compromising the party’s ideology in exchange for five seats in the provincial assembly.
While addressing a press conference on Monday, he said it will be sad to see Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi making a ‘Naya’ Pakistan. “Imran Khan used to call Parvez Elahi the biggest dacoit of Punjab and will he now make Naya Pakistan?” he asked.
“What was the point of launching a struggle if the PML-Q leader was going to be made the Chief Minister of Punjab? Astonishingly, the PTI top brass could not find one person from within the party who has given enough sacrifices for the CM slot,” he said.
Aleem said he was being wrongly accused of betraying the party and challenged the interim Prime Minister to name one person from the party who was as loyal as him. He said he started supporting Imran Khan in 2011 and he did everything for the party with his resources; Jahangir Tareen also helped a lot in this regard. “I did my part to make a new Pakistan; my business was in Lahore but still I stood against the government and it was not easy to oppose the government. During the sit-in, I stayed in Islamabad for 126 days,” he added.
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“I was served four notices by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) within 15 days after I became an MPA. If he wanted to appoint Usman Buzdar as Punjab Chief Minister then why did he call me before NAB,” he added.
“On my last visit to the NAB office, I was with the Director-General and we both saw the news that Usman Buzdar had been nominated for the chief minister’s post, and subsequently I proceeded to plead with the DG to spare me now as the CM has been decided,” he added.
Aleem revealed that his picture of meeting with the US envoy is being shared on various forms of media. “Khan Sahib, I met the American ambassador in your house. When the PTI was in opposition, did we not meet with the US and EU envoys,” he asked.
He also said the Constitution and law say that the Assembly cannot be dissolved if there is a no-confidence motion pending. “The whole nation has seen that 199 people were sitting in the assembly,” he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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