PTI founder ‘attacked’ Pakistan’s integrity to save his rule: Nawaz

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday castigated PTI founder Imran Khan for ‘attacking’ Pakistan’s integrity to save his rule, saying that he never compromised national security despite being “subjugated”, ARY News reported.

Addressing a public gathering in Haroonabad, the PML-N supremo noted that he had neither compromised the national security nor revealed any state secret to save his rulership – referring to PTI founder’s cipher controversy.

“He [Imran Khan] hatched conspiracy and compromised the national security by revealing state’s secret,” Nawaz Sharif said, adding that he “attacked” the country’s integrity to save his rule.

Earlier in the day, a special court handed former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi 10-year jail sentences each in connection with a case involving the disclosure of state secrets.

The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document that the Federal Investigation Agency’s charge sheet alleges was never returned by Imran. The PTI has long held that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust Imran as prime minister.

The court in its verdict said the prosecution had enough evidence to prove the charges against the former prime minister and ex-foreign minister.

Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif pointed out that his government had control inflation, fuel rates, loadshedding, the US dollar fluctuations and got rid of International Monetary Fund (IMF). “On the other hand, the former PTI government kept begging before foreign countries,” he claimed.

He mentioned that the latest ranking of the global corruption index, saying: “Transparency International declared the PTI founder’s era most corrupt. Corruption was decreased during our tenure but the country’s corruption index had risen during the PTI government.”

Pakistan’s ranking on Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has improved by seven places and is now ranked 133rd among 180 countries in comparison to its 140th place last year.

According to the report by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Pakistan’s ranking, during 2023, was 133 while the CPI score was 29 out of 100 – an increase of two points that made this its highest score since 2020.

The former prime minister also vowed that his party will bring economic stability and prosperity in the country if voted to power. “Issues of unemployment, poverty and inflation will be resolved on priority basis after coming into power,” he reiterated.