LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry has said that recent column of senior journalist Javed Chaudhary has endorsed the stance of PTI that former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa played an important role in the removal of their government.
While talking to the media here on Friday, the former federal minister further said that the journalist claimed that since the economy was deteriorating, General Bajwa (retd) decided to change their government.
“The column also claimed that the PTI government was removed to please foreign powers since they were not happy with us. Irrespective of relationships with foreign countries, no country has the right to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty, only the people should decide the fate of country. We are ready to hold cordial relations with a foreign country, but we would not accept any interference,” he said. He believed that the ‘confession’ made by the retired general was damaging and against the country’s sovereignty; “pleading that foreign powers were not happy with former Prime Minister Imran Khan was not acceptable to us.”
“Javed Chaudhry also wrote in the column that cases against Nawaz Sharif would end after a deal was brokered by Bajwa. If true then this was a serious intervention in judicial matters and it would have some serious consequences.”
He negated the claim that the economy was in a bad shape when they were in government; “it was growing at 6 percent annually and all economic indicators were positive. “On the pretext of bad performance, the country’s economy was derailed after removing our government,” he added. He averred that after these revelations, the coalition government lost its legitimacy; “under these circumstances, fresh polls was the only way to end political and economic instability in the country”.
To a question, he said that many people within the PML-N were questioning the party’s position on various political and economic issues, adding that PML-N senior leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Miftah Ismael were talking sense.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023