Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Muhammad Khan has claimed that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is not taking part in the protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan because he may have been given an NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance].
The PTI minister, who appeared on Nadeem Malik’s show alongside PPP’s Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, said the PPP chairperson is avoiding the opposition rally because he may have reached a deal over the corruption cases against him. He, however, went on to say that the incumbent government doesn’t believe in making deals with corrupt politicians.
The PTI minister, however, refused to confirm if Bilawal and his father have actually been given a clean chit in the graft cases against them: “Maybe they have received the NRO, I have no idea.”
However, Ali Muhammad Khan claimed that his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has never received or given an NRO.
This prompted the host to ask if the PTI has refused to give NRO to anyone, then who has given Bilawal this alleged NRO to dissuade him from joining the opposition protest. “Is there a government above the PTI government,” he asked.
The host asked: “Has Bilawal been given an NRO?”
“I don’t know,” said Ali Muhammad Khan. “We don’t give NRO,” he said, adding that the PPP and PML-N’s politics is based on NROs.
Taking a dig at the PTI leader, Kaira said that on the one hand the minister says “his party doesn’t give NROs, and, on the other, he claims that Bilawal has received an NRO which is why he is not a part of the opposition protest; who is dishing out these NROs then — is there a government above the government?”
He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is protesting outside the ECP for the very same reason — an end to the government above the government.
PROTEST OUTSIDE ECP:
Tensions are running high in the twin cities, especially the federal capital, as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) remains undeterred on plans to hold a protest outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the delay in the decision of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) foreign funding case.
With security around the ECP being tightened to avoid any untoward incident, Geo News reported that the federal government has deployed two platoons of Punjab Rangers along with police personnel and sealed the election watchdog’s main entrance with barbed wires.
