Pak threatened by ‘monarchy’ of Nawaz Sharif: Imran Khan

Pakistan did not face any threat from the army but from the “family dynasty” of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said on Tuesday. Speaking at rallies in Bagh and Muzaffarabad, the cricketer-turned-politician recalled the 1999 coup when retired Gen Pervez Musharraf had deposed Sharif.

“People of Pakistan did not come out on the roads then the way Turkish people did last Friday night,” he said. “Instead they celebrated the dismissal and distributed sweets,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn.

Khan, who had earlier said that the people would celebrate army’s takeover of the government in Pakistan, modified his statement slightly, saying the coup in Turkey would have succeeded if Sharif was at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s place.

People of Pakistan, he said, were more democracy-loving than their Turkish brethren but they did not come out in support of Sharif in 1999 because he was “amassing wealth” in the same fashion even at that time.

“Raising factories, wealth and money and promoting family dynasty had been their style from the very beginning. They are preparing their next generation to rule as if Pakistan is their fiefdom,” he said. He said Pakistan could become one of the great countries only if corruption was eliminated.

“It’s the corruption and lawlessness that has stopped investments and subsequent development and progress of this country,” he said, adding, Sharif submitted himself neither to the law of the land nor to accountability.