ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday lashed out at PTI Chairman Imran Khan for “poisoning” the minds of Pakistans with his speeches targetting state institutions.
“The nation has been divided as Khan repeatedly called [the then-Opposition and now government] thieves and dacoits,” PM Shehbaz said while speaking during the first session of the National Assembly since the new government’s formation.
Terming Khan’s Abbottabad speech “dangerous”, PM Shehbaz said the PTI chairman told his supporters that Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah’s commanders-in-chiefs were “Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq”, which is a direct reference to Pakistan’s institutions.
“There can be nothing [wrost] than the words he used for the institutions in his speech,” the prime minister said, slamming Khan for spewing venom against the institutions, which was tantamount to “treachery”.
The prime minister warned that if Khan was not stopped from criticising the institutions, Pakistan would soon become like Syria and Lebanon, where an anarchic situation has unfolded.
PM Shehbaz added that the institution which Khan is targetting had “pampered him like a child” and he was “their favourite when he was in the government.”
“I want to tell this house that this institution has not supported any government or prime minister in the last 75 years like it supported Imran Khan Niazi,” PM Shehbaz said as he criticised the PTI chairman for failing to deliver.