ISLAMABAD 04 Dec (Online): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and said that the ousted premier wants to make his way to power “even if it means undermining” the country’s democratic system.
The PM’s comments come a day after Imran lamented that the coalition government had rejected his offer for talks.
In a tweet today, Shehbaz said that the PTI chief’s “recent diatribe against parliamentary democracy is the latest in a series of attacks that fly in the face of how democracy functions in modern nation-states”.
He added that the deposed premier’s “politics is aimed at making his way to power even if it means undermining foundations this country stands on”.
Earlier, the federal government had told the PTI chief that the threats and dialogue offer could not go hand in hand in response to Imran’s offer of holding talks on the condition of announcing fresh general polls.
On Friday, the PTI chief had softened his stance on possible talks with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders and had appeared to be striking a conciliatory tone as he signalled his openness to “sit and talk and give a date for the general elections”.
However, while making the offer he had also threatened to dissolve the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assemblies.
The offer for talks to the government had appeared to mark a departure from the hardline stance he had taken during his mammoth November 26 Rawalpindi rally.
However, a day later, while addressing K-P lawmakers through a video link from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on Saturday, Imran lamented that the coalition government rejected his offer for talks and directed lawmakers to “start preparing for elections”.
Following the ex-PM’s advice to his lawmakers, senior party leader Fawad Chaudhry revealed that the party would first go for polls in Punjab and K-P.
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