Pakistan\u2019s ousted premier Nawaz Sharif has targeted the judiciary for disqualifying him as he made his way from Islamabad to Lahore in a rally that is being seen as the start of his campaign for the 2018 election.<\/p>\n
Former premier Nawaz Sharif again attacked Pakistan\u2019s judiciary on Friday as he made his way towards Lahore in a rally even as his wife Kulsoom filed her nominations to contest the parliament seat left vacant by his disqualification by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Sharif\u2019s rally, which began making its way from Islamabad to Lahore on Wednesday, is being seen as the start of his PML-N party\u2019s campaign for the 2018 general election.<\/p>\n
After spending the night at a hotel on the banks of the Jhelum river, Sharif made his way into central Punjab, the political heartland of the PML-N, where he again received a mixed reception at different places.<\/p>\n
A defiant Sharif had criticised the judiciary on Thursday for forcing him to quit as prime minister, saying it was an \u201cinsult\u201d to the people of Pakistan as their elected leader was unceremoniously ousted by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an insult to the 200 million people of Pakistan. You voted for me, but the five honourable judges sent me home with a single stroke of a pen,\u201d Sharif told his supporters in Jhelum on the second day of his journey along the historic Grand Trunk Road.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he told his audience: \u201cEvery prime minister in this country was given a tenure of one-and-a-half years, on average, to govern. Some were executed, some jailed, some handcuffed and some exiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, dictators were allowed to rule for decades and the judges even allowed them to rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a related development in Lahore, Sharif\u2019s wife Begum Kulsoom Nawaz submitted her nomination papers to contest by-elections to the seat he had vacated. The papers were submitted by her son-in-law Muhammad Safdar.<\/p>\n
A total of 35 candidates have submitted nominations for the by-elections scheduled for September 17. The last date for submission of papers is August 12.<\/p>\n
Sharif\u2019s wife has never contested elections though she played a key role in the PML-N\u2019s movement for the release of her husband when he was deposed in a military coup in 1999 and jailed. Sharif had initially said his brother, Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, would contest the by-elections in order to become the premier but the plan was dropped because the PML-N believes his elevation could hurt the party in Pakistan\u2019s most populous province.<\/p>\n
As Sharif\u2019s convoy made its way through Punjab, he stopped at Gujrat, where he offered Friday prayers and addressed PML-N workers at GTS Chowk.<\/p>\n
The media reported that as the convoy approached Kharian, anti-Sharif songs could be heard playing inside the local cantonment. There was an estimated crowd of 2,000 to 3,000 waiting to welcome the motorcade in Kharian.<\/p>\n
The convoy then moved to Lalamusa, from where it proceeded to Gujrat. According to the schedule issued by the PML-N, Sharif will spend the night in Gujranwala and leave on Saturday morning for Lahore. He is expected to reach the city at 4 pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n
PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry backed the ousted premier\u2019s statements and said Sharif is not seeking to be restored to power. Sharif has undertaken the rally to \u201cend the insult to the people\u2019s mandate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sharif has specifically referred to the five judges on the bench of the Supreme Court that passed the verdict to disqualify him under Article 62 of the Constitution in the Panamagate case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI became the prime minister of Pakistan through votes, whereas five honourable judges sent me home. Only those who vote politicians into power have the right to depose them,\u201d he thundered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan\u2019s ousted premier Nawaz Sharif has targeted the judiciary for disqualifying him as he made his way from Islamabad to Lahore in a rally that is being seen as the start of his campaign for the 2018 election. Former premier Nawaz Sharif again attacked Pakistan\u2019s judiciary on Friday as he made his way towards Lahore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}