Dawn – PML-N sees conspiracy behind Dr Tahirul Qadri’s return

Islamabad, 25 December 2012. The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz sees a conspiracy behind the ‘launching’ of Dr Tahirul Qadri just before elections and believes that he has been brought back to the country to target the PML-N and block its way forward.

The allegations were levelled by PML-N leaders, including its chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, at a function held at the party’s central secretariat to mark the birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, birthday of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Christmas on Tuesday.

Almost every speaker criticised Dr Qadri and accused him of working on the agenda of some internal and external forces to derail the democratic process in the country.

Without naming Imran Khan, the PML-N chairman said that after his failure to deliver, the forces which had supported the referendum of former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf had now introduced a “new pawn” on the political chessboard. He said he was surprised by the amount of money used by Dr Qadri for the success of his Sunday’s public meeting in Lahore. He said Dr Qadri should tell the nation that from where he had got this amount of money to organise such a big show because “such resources are not available even to governments”.

Commenting on Dr Qadri’s slogan “save the state, not politics”, PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah said his party would save both the state and politics, adding that the PML-N believed that a state could not survive without politics. “The very existence of the state will be at stake if you exclude politics from it.”

MNAs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Anjum Aqeel Khan and the party’s former information secretary Siddiqul Farooque also spoke on the occasion.

Talking to Dawn, Zafar Ali Shah said he saw “international intrigue, internal conspiracy” behind the move to bring Dr Qadri to the country to create chaos.

When asked why the PML-N was feeling threatened, he said the party did not consider him a political threat, but he could be a threat to the democratic system in the country. Dr Qadri had said that elections could be delayed, if necessary, but the PML-N and other democratic parties believed that any delay could prove disastrous for the country, he added.

http://dawn.com/2012/12/26/pml-n-sees-conspiracy-behind-qadris-return/

Dawn – PML-N disrupts parliament sessions over PM’s eligibility

Islamabad, 3 May 2012. Members of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N)  disrupted session of the National Assembly and  staged a walkout from the Senate when they were resumed on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.

The PML-N senators staged a walkout from the upper house over Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s refusal to step down from the premiership after his conviction in the contempt of court case  and ‘non-implementation’ of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) regarding the drone attacks.

Senators from the PML-N protested in the upper house causing a chaotic situation there.

PML-N’s Senator Raja Zafar ul Haq said that the senate session was unconstitutional because after the Supreme Court’s verdict against Gilani, he was no more the prime minister and hence the PML-N does not accept Gilani’s cabinet.

Haq said that despite the joint resolution passed in the parliament on national security and future rules of engagement with the United States, US drone strikes have not been stopped in the country.

Moreover, the lawmakers belonging to PML-N disrupted the National Assembly session demanding resignation of the prime minister.

The PML-N lawmakers tore the copies of the day’s agenda of the session and shouted slogans against the government.

They wore black stripes on their arms in protest and carried placards with the slogans of ‘Go Gilani Go’ printed on them.

Gilani did not show up in today’s parliament’s session to avoid any unpleasant incident.

The parliament’s session was subsequently adjourned until 10:00 am on Thursday.

http://dawn.com/2012/05/02/pml-n-stages-walk-out-in-senate-over-pms-eligibility/

Dawn – Nawaz links reopening of Nato routes to expulsion of US agents

Ali Hazrat Bacha

Peshawar, 7 April 2012. Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif said here on Friday that the government would have to get the country cleared of American agents (contractors) and drone attacks stopped in exchange for reopening routes for Nato supplies.

He was addressing a meeting at which PML-Q’s provincial president Engineer Amir Muqam joined his party and announced the merger of his faction into the PML-N.

Mr Sharif said the government would have to stop allowing the use of bases in the country by foreign troops. Besides Nato trucks should be used only to carry foodstuff through Pakistan.

“The Parliamentary Committee on National Security is already working on the issue and my party has expressed its stance,” he said, adding that the PML-N would not support reopening of the Nato supply unless these conditions were met.

He urged the United States to use its influence to get the Kashmir issue resolved as lives of innocent people in the occupied territory could be saved.

He condemned the American announcement of a bounty on Hafiz Saeed’s head and said the US-Pakistan relations could not improve unless the US stopped pursuing double standards.

“The meetings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security will be a futile exercise if the US did not change its policy towards Pakistan,” he said.

He said the government would have to change its foreign policy and stop compromising on national security and sovereignty.

Otherwise, development and peace in the country would remain only a dream.

He accused the government of indulging in corruption and destroying national institutions like PIA and Pakistan Railways.

Because of its faulty policies, he said, the energy crisis was worsening by the day.

Criticising the role of military dictators, he said, they tried to divide political parties, encouraged non-party elections and promoted sectarianism. Referring to the government’s performance during the past four years, he said it failed to resolve the energy crisis, curb terrorism and sectarianism, steer the country out of financial crisis and focused only on accumulating wealth.

“The country would not have faced the financial crisis and law and order problem if the PML-N government had not been removed in 1997 when it was in a position to complete the planned motorways from Peshawar to Afghanistan and Central Asian countries,” he said.

Commenting on remarks made by President Asif Ali Zardari, he said he would not use the same language because the nation was the better judge.

“Everyone knows that the Musharraf government did not allow members of my family to attend the funeral of my father in Lahore,” he said.

He asked the government to end corruption, take up welfare projects and his party would support it in the best interests of the nation.

PML-N leaders Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Pir Sabir Shah, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi, Rehmat Salam Khattak and Farid Toofan were present on the occasion.

http://dawn.com/2012/04/07/nawaz-links-reopening-of-nato-routes-to-expulsion-of-us-agents/