PM vows to put Nawaz Sharif back in jail

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday said that he would ensure that Nawaz Sharif was brought back from his London hideout and placed with common prisoners, and not the VVIP jail, he was in.

“Now I will do my best to bring you back and put you in common prison, not a VVIP one. Those who loot few hundreds of thousand rupees stay in common prison but those who laundered billions and their children live in apartments, worth billions, stay in a VVIP jail. Come back and see where I will put you,” the prime minister said in his address to the Tiger Force Convention here.

Nawaz Sharif who was convicted by an accountability court in Dec 2018 and sentenced seven year jail-term in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference and also fined Rs1.5 billion and US $25 million. A disqualification of 10 years from holding any public office was part of the sentences. However he was provided a fully furnished room with a television, air conditioner and attached bathroom.

Describing Friday’s public gathering of 11-member opposition coalition – Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in Gujranwala a “circus” the prime minister also requested the courts and National Accountability Bureau to conclude corruption cases against Sharif Family and Asif Zardari without any delay as the people were yearning to get back their looted money.

He assured both the institutions of fullest logistics support to dispose of the said cases and also announced that he would be activating all the institutions under him to arrest the looters.

He said Nawaz Sharif’s verbal attack against Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Director General Inter Services Intelligence Lt General Faiz Hameed were in fact an attempt to get cheap popularity in the Indian and Israeli lobbies.

“I understand whose game he is playing. I have full intelligence (reports). For me it makes no difference who is the army chief now just because I have not laundered money … He is trying to create rift between government and the army,” the prime minister said in an aggressive tone.

“So far, the opposition has seen just one Imran Khan. This is Naya Imran Khan after yesterday’s speech by a ‘jackal’. Now they will see a different Imran Khan,” he said while announcing that no more production orders would be issued for the detained opposition leaders on corruption charges to attend the parliament session until they satisfied the courts.

Terming Nawaz Sharif’s words “an attack on Pakistan Army, not General Bajwa” the prime minister said the military had fully supported the government during COVID-19 pandemic, after Karachi rains, in defence and foreign policies and by slashing its annual budget considering country’s tough financial conditions.