On Wednesday, it was the turn of the motormouth Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Khan to attack Sharif with saturation fire. The garrulous Rashid Khan told reporters that it was Sharif who had provided Indian authorities the address of Ajmal Kasab, the brainwashed foot soldier in Pakistan’s terror brigade, who had mercilessly killed dozens during the infamous 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Of course, the question arises that when is revealing the address to India of a merciless terrorist who had launched a massacre in Mumbai an act of treason? Or were Rashid Khan’s remarks yet another acknowledgement that Pakistan backed terrorism, and in the convoluted if not demented minds of many in the Pakistani establishment a terror attack on India is an act of supreme patriotism? Is support for international terrorism embedded in the DNA of parties such as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)?
Not too long-ago Imran Khan, who is departing from Premiership, kicking and screaming, had lionised the biggest terror icon Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and that too in parliament. State patronage to UN proscribed global terrorists – Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hafez Saeed the architect of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim – the mastermind of the first Mumbai attack, to name a few- is an established fact.
The voluble Rashid Khan then went on to accuse the “treasonous” Sharif of financially benefiting from Osama bin Laden and hatching conspiracies against the state.
Other luminaries in the Imran Khan cabinet–Federal ministers Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry– claimed on Tuesday that Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N leader was the plotter of and alleged conspiracy hatched with foreign powers, and was behind the so-called “threat letter” sent to the government.
The targeting of Nawaz Sharif is not surprising. Once Imran Khan goes into political oblivion, at least for now, the star of the Sharif clan is set to shine with its ultimate lustre.
Shehbaz Sharif, as the leader of the opposition is set to become the Prime Minister once the no-confidence motion against Khan is passed. That could open the door for Maryam Nawaz, a rising star on the Pakistani political horizon to enter the corridors of power. The stars would be then well aligned for the big Sharif-Nawaz Sharif-elder brother of Shehbaz and father of Maryam, to make a triumphant return from forced exile in London. This is likely to happen provided the Sharifs manage to forge a mutually acceptable understanding with the powerful army Chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, who has been another winner of the contest with Imran Khan, who had publicly attacked ultimately big boys of the army.)
IANS