Establishment also tried to cut a deal with PML-N: Asif
LAHORE: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif claimed on Monday that the establishment had tried to cut a deal with the PML-N before the 2018 elections on ‘certain matters’, but Nawaz Sharif did not agree and as a result Imran Khan was brought to power.
“The ‘Imran model’ was kept in a laboratory. They (establishment) tried their best to cut a deal with the then PML-N government on certain matters ahead of the 2018 vote, but Nawaz Sharif did not agree. Had Nawaz said yes, there would have been no Panama case and judicial verdicts against him (Nawaz),” Mr Asif said while addressing a seminar here on Monday.
The minister also indirectly talked about the establishment’s offer to Shehbaz Sharif of becoming prime minister.
“Shehbaz Sharif stood with his elder brother and did not leave him and his party (by rejecting the establishment’s offer). Had he (Shehbaz) compromised, there was a possibility that this (Imran) model would not have been tried in 2018. But perhaps the honour which we earned today might not have been there (in case of accepting the offer),” he said.
Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar, who was very close to Nawaz Sharif till his ouster by the apex court in 2017 in the Panama Papers case, had ‘categorically cautioned’ him not to pick up fights with the powerful military establishment over certain matters.
The relationship between the two friends turned sour as Mr Sharif reportedly followed the advice of the party hardliners like his daughter Maryam Nawaz and old confidant Pervaiz Rashid.
Khawaja Asif further said Imran Khan had lied that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was under the control of Gen Qamar Bajwa and he was helpless.
December 27,2022
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1728498/establishment-also-tried-to-cut-a-deal-with-pml-n-asif
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