Amid political turmoil in Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed the nation on Wednesday, wherein he asserted that the arrest of his predecessor Imran Khan was not a part of "political vendetta" but a series of corruption charges that he has been facing.
Slamming Khan for inciting his supporters to ravage public properties, Sharif recalled how his brother and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) allegedly on "false" charges. Prime Minister said that his brother had faced "bogus" allegations when Imran was in power and added he did not incite his supporters to ruin the country.
"Nawaz was also arrested by NAB on false corruption charges, but he did not incite violence," said Sharif. "Instead, he faced trials and come clean. You should also face trials," he added.
Shehbaz, who did not present in the country when Imran was arrested, returned to Islamabad on Wednesday. This was his first address to the nation after a massive protest gripped the already "bankrupt nation".
In order to calm down the protestors, he kept on repeating the repercussion on the country and called it an "act of terrorism".
"Imran's arrest was not a part of revenge": Shehbaz
During the address, though he acknowledged the tumultuous nature of Pakistan's political history but did not mention that Imran's arrest was a part of "revenge".
In fact, he stressed that “revengeful acts in politics never rendered good results for the nation”.
"Never had revengeful acts in politics rendered good results. We are still facing a lot of NAB cases. None of them have been proven against us as yet. We have never refused to face the law," he maintained.
PTI also framed false charges against me: Shehbaz
"Federal ministers used to air details of cases against political opponents during the PTI tenure and former premier Imran Khan used to predict arrests. Not only political opponents but family and relatives were not forgiven too," he noted.
It is worth mentioning that former PM Khan was arrested on Tuesday from outside Islamabad High Court when he was about to attend court proceedings. In a dramatic turn of events, Pakistan Rangers arrested "forcibly" arrested him, which PTI dubbed the action as "abduction" and demanded the immediate release of Khan.
Initially, the court summoned the Islamabad Police IG for their action but later granted eight days of custody.
