ABBOTTABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has on Sunday said that those who are talking about ‘minus-one formula’ are unaware of the fact that Nawaz Sharif is the name of an ideology.
The disgruntled premier expressed his views while addressing a public gathering in Abbottabad and reiterated that no allegations of corruption were proven against him, yet he was ousted from his office. Nawaz affirmed that such practices should be stopped now.
“A whole drama was staged in the name of Panama Papers and my entire family was dragged into courts…but we still accepted the accountability calls because “we are not guilty”, he told a public gathering in Abbottabad.
Nawaz Sharif further added that no judicial verdict can separate him from the people. He maintained that people of Pakistan will give their verdict on the review petitions regarding Panama Papers case.
While rejecting the idea of “Minus-Nawaz” and calling his name an ideology, Sharif said he would bring ‘revolutionary change’ in the country.
He insisted that the joint investigation team formed to probe Panama Papers and his family’s alleged connection with it would soon be exposed before the public.
Mr. Sharif expressed resentment that he was ousted for “not taking salaries from a company owned by my son.” When all attempts were in vain, they disqualified me on this incomprehensible context, he argued.
“Have you heard any such verdict anywhere else in the world? This only happens in Pakistan. We need to change this trend.” He told people: “I will come back to you again in 2018 general elections with an aim to change fate of Pakistan.”
The rally was held at College Ground where people gathered in large numbers. Nawaz Sharif earlier reached Islamabad in a special plane from Lahore and was received by Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz at the airport.
Nawaz also met Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, his party ally, at the airport and exchanged views on current political situation.
The disqualified premier then reached his home in Murree, and left for Abbottabad after a while. Furthermore, senior leadership of PML-N is already present in Abbottabad to monitor the proceedings.
Panama Papers leak had thrown Pakistan’s powerful Sharif family into an existential crisis, particularly after judicial investigators ‘discovered’ in a damning report that the ruling dynasty accumulated wealth beyond their known sources of income. What ensued next was barrage of clarion calls for accountability.
The clamours for action against the ruling family intensified after the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by the Supreme Court to investigate corruption allegations that surfaced following the Panama Papers leak, after two months gave its finding to the court declaring that Sharif family accumulated wealth far above its earnings and they prepared falsified documents to mask the truth.
Sharif was ousted from his slot after the JIT found him guilty of corruption. NNI