Sheikh Rasheed predicts technocrats' govt by Sept 20

Claiming that the days of the present government had been numbered, Awami Muslim League (AML) founder and former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed said on Monday that the country might have a government of technocrats by September 20 this year, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Talking to the media outside the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, he said that months of August and September were ominous for the government as interviews for the selection of individuals for the next setup had begun.

He said categorically that former prime minister and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif would not give an ‘extension’ to anybody. “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on the other hand, after failing to deliver on his rhetoric has given up,” Rasheed said, adding, “This man has ruined the country’s economy. Now no one gives any importance to him.”   

The former minister said that the mandate given to him by the people in the February 8 general elections was stolen from him. “Still I accepted the election results gleefully.”

He said he had never thought he would be picked up by the intelligence agencies.

The AML chief appealed to Army Chief General Asim Munier to announce amnesty for all those involved in the May 9 incidents of violence, saying PTI workers languishing in jails were undergoing through lot of agony.

He said he was implicated in 14 false cases during the last two years.  

Rasheed announced he would again be active in politics from August 30.

He again said he had never given any statement against former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

However, he said he had relations with only one man in the PTI, and had nothing to do with the rest of the party.

The former minister said he saluted the judiciary.  

He said that there was a planning behind the formation of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP).