‘Abbasi should stay on as PM till polls’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ousted premier Nawaz Sharif made it clear on Wednesday that he expected newly elected Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to continue till the general election due next year, scuttling a move to elevate his brother Shehbaz Sharif to the top post.
Sharif has asked his brother, who is the chief minister of the politically crucial Punjab province, to continue in that position.
Soon after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif, 67, in connection with the Panama Papers case last month, he announced that Abbasi, 58, would be made the interim prime minister till Shehbaz could be elected as a member of the National Assembly.
“It is my wish that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi remains prime minister till the end of the (PML-N’s) tenure,” Sharif told senior leaders of the ruling party at a meeting at Punjab House here before setting off on a rally to Lahore.
Sharif said the work Shehbaz had done in Punjab was invaluable and it was important he continued doing the same work in the province.
Wednesday was an eventful day for Sharif and his party as thousands of PML-N supporters came out on the streets to greet him as he slowly made his way from Islamabad to his hometown of Lahore.
Speaking on the eve of his departure, Sharif said Pakistan had only seen “a crippled democracy”. He asked: “Will the nation’s mandate ever be respected?
“Or will it continue to be dishonoured and ignored? Will we ever have the rule of law in this country? Will we have the rule of the people’s mandate?”