Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday accused the country’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, of overthrowing his government, pressuring the judiciary and installing the current government of Prime Minister Imran Khan in the 2018 elections. .
Sharif spoke via video link from London to a gathering of tens of thousands of people organized by opposition parties to launch a nationwide protest campaign in the eastern city of Gujranwala with the aim of overthrowing the Khan government. .
“General Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country on the sidelines of your wishes,” Sharif said at the meeting, the largest since the 2018 elections.
The former prime minister also accused the head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence spy agency of being involved in conspiring against his government. Nine major opposition parties formed a joint platform called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) last month to start a national agitation against the government.
Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the main opposition party, was fired by the Supreme Court in 2017 on corruption charges and left for London last November for medical treatment.
He blames the generals and judges for what he says were bogus charges.
Pakistan’s powerful military denies meddling in politics. The military’s public relations wing did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Maryam Nawaz, daughter and political heir of Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto, son of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who leads his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also addressed the meeting.
They both criticized the Khan government for what they called poor governance and mismanagement of the economy.
The protest campaign comes at a time when Pakistan is experiencing an economic crisis, with inflation hitting double digits and negative growth.
Speakers at the meeting called for Khan’s resignation and an end to military interference in politics. The next general elections are scheduled for 2023.
“Go, Imran, go. Your time is up!” shouted tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered at the Gujranwala stadium.
Khan, who came to power on an anti-bribery platform and denies that the military helped him win, said on Friday that he was not afraid of the opposition campaign, which was aimed at blackmailing him into dropping corruption cases against its leaders. .
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