Former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has claimed that during his time in jail over corruption allegations, he was approached with an offer to form a government.
“I told the messengers to go and talk to party supreme leader Nawaz Sharif instead,” the former premier said while speaking to The News.
Avoiding naming the messenger, Abbasi added that both Nawaz and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would not be willing to be part of any dialogue leading to the setting up of what he termed “another hybrid government”.
He reiterated his stance for an inter-institution dialogue for the sake of a better future for Pakistan, and added that Nawaz would be ready to be part of a meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders.
Abbasi said that Nawaz Sharif’s recent speeches were not meant to humiliate anyone but to identify the problems and fix them for the sake of a brighter future and in the interest of the people of Pakistan.
To a question, he said that it was his personal view that an inter-institution dialogue was the only way forward for the country.
When asked if Nawaz would agree to such an idea, he responded in the affirmative and said that the PML-N supremo had no personal agenda or grudge with anyone but wanted to address the fundamental wrongs of the system, which could only be corrected through a meaningful dialogue process.
He said that the purpose of the opposition’s current public mobilisation campaigns was to pave the way for a meaningful dialogue process.
He explained that neither Nawaz nor the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is against institutions; instead, they only refer to the mistakes of certain individuals holding responsible positions.
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Once again referring to Nawaz’s recent speeches, he said that although the PML-N supremo had named the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chiefs, the purpose was not to humiliate them but to point out what went wrong.
He said that all the stakeholders should sit together for the greater good of the masses instead of focusing on personal issues and grudges.
Regarding the PML-N’s contacts with the establishment, he said that politicians and the establishment have always maintained contacts but after the recent episodes, where such contacts were revealed in a scandalous manner, the trust level for such interactions was dashed. At times, these contacts are made in the best national interest, he said, but the manner in which such meetings were recently portrayed, has compelled the PML-N to stop such interactions.
Abbasi maintained that currently there was no contact between the PML-N and the establishment and such contacts could not be restored before the revival of trust between the two sides.
