Govt, Opp must sit together to find a way forward for Pakistan: Saad

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Friday that ruling and opposition parties should talk to each other and find a way forward for Pakistan.

Speaking on a TV programme, Saad Rafique said that progress of Pakistan matters, individuals’ doesn’t. When asked to explain his statement that his party did not plan to topple the government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the member of the National Assembly from the main opposition party said his party could topple the government, but it would not. He said his party was aware of cracks in the ruling PTI, but it would not take advantage of these cracks because toppling the government would hurt Pakistan. He said the PML-N could arrange votes to bring a successful no-confidence move against the government, but it would not do any such thing because the country could not afford such a move. He said a no-confidence move could send the government packing, but it would not benefit the country.

Answering a question about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Saad Rafique said the accountability watchdog’s existence today was the result of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-N’s incompetence. He said that politicians are not the only ones suffering at NAB’s hands; there were hundreds of businessmen and bureaucrats who were being victimised by the NAB and people didn’t even know their names. He said that number of politicians being victimised by the NAB was just one or two percent. He said there were 50 camps inside the Camp Jail where victims of NAB were languishing. He said the accountability law governing the NAB should be abolished. He said that accountability should not stop, but the black law made by former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf should be abolished and a new transparent accountability law should be enacted. He said the new accountability mechanism should not be controlled by any government.