Nawaz to soon return to Pakistan and head PML-N: Ayaz Sadiq

LAHORE: Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq on Sunday said he could not yet digest the Supreme Court’s verdict against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in London to look after his ailing spouse who has undergone three surgeries to remove throat cancer.

Addressing a news conference in Lahore, the speaker NA said the ex-PM would soon return to Pakistan and head the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party.

“I do not agree with the SC’s verdict. I myself subconsciously call him prime minister even now,” he said pointing towards the objection raised by Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan over Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s calling Nawaz as his premier.

He said Nawaz still held the party leadership and after him his brother Shehbaz Sharif was our leader.

Back in July, a five-judge Supreme Court bench disqualified then PM Nawaz Sharif in a unanimous verdict in the Panamagate case, thus cutting short his third stint in power.

Soon after the SC judgement, the PM House issued a terse statement saying that Nawaz Sharif, despite having reservations on the SC’s verdict, has stepped down from his post as the premier.

Sharif served as prime minister twice in the 1990s but failed to complete his tenure. In his second term he was ousted in October 1999 coup leading to a decade of exile. He won a third term as prime minister in 2013 general election.

Following his disqualification, he was also relinquished of his party head stature, however later the Senate on Friday passed the Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 paving way for the former PM Nawaz Sharif to regain PML-N’s chairmanship.

Ayaz Sadiq also said former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was a senior PML-N leader and would remain so. In a personal meeting, he told me that his party was PML-N and his leader was Nawaz and the day Panama Leaks was verdict was announced, Nisar stood by the party head, he said.

To a query, he said investigation should be held right away on the flourishing of banners of Daesh in Islamabad.

“It is highly concerning to hear about terrorists in the country,” he said.

To another query, the speaker NA said if former president Pervez Musharraf knew about his predecessor Asif Zardari’s involvement in the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder case then why did he not revealed it when he was in the power.