Khaqan Abbasi says opposed to Nawaz Sharif’s mode of ascent to power

PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Saturday that he had an objection to the way former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif planned to become the country’s prime minister for the fourth time, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In an informal chat with media at Alhamra Hall in Lahore, Abbasi, also a former prime minister, said he would like to advise Nawaz not to lose his heart even if he had to settle for only 30 National Assembly (NA) seats rather than 100 without the state institutions’ patronage. “There is no point in doing politics if politicians don’t have the moral courage,” he opined.

He, however, made it clear that still he was not against the PML-N, and would not contest the election against any of its candidates.

He clarified that the reason why he had distanced himself from the PML-N was not because he did not want to serve under Maryam Nawaz.

Recalling his days at the Prime Minister (PM) office, the PML-N leader said he did not have any powers. “Rather I was toothless. I had only been given a job there.”

Abbasi was of the view that the reason behind the present state of the PTI, particularly of its ex-chairman Imran Khan, was the general election of 2018 in which the people’s mandate had been stolen from the PML-N.

He went on to say that there were only four prime ministers of the country who were leaders. “They were Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan,” he said, and added, “A leader is the one who motivates people to vote for his party.”

The former prime minister said he had time and again asked former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to abolish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), because it was bent upon humiliating politicians.