LAHORE, May 8, 2023: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Sunday claimed that his son Moonis Elahi would return to Pakistan when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif would come back, The News reported Monday.
Elahi’s remarks came in response to a question regarding former federal minister Moonis’s return to the country.
According to media reports, Moonis left for Spain in the last week of December 2022, and he was still living there “to avoid political victimisation in the country”.
Addressing a press conference flanked by Lahore High Court Bar Association President Ishtiaq A Khan and Advocate Amir Saeed Rawn here, Elahi said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had gone to London to seek fresh instructions from PML-N supremo and his elder brother Nawaz against the Supreme Court.
Taking a jibe at PM Shehbaz for attending the King Charles III Coronation ceremony, Elahi said: “In the presence of Shehbaz Sharif at the coronation ceremony, there was great fear of the disappearance of the crown. It was saved with great difficulty.”
‘Sharif brothers are in London to hatch conspiracies’
The Sharif brothers are sitting in London actually to hatch conspiracies against the judiciary, the former chief minister said, adding that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government was playing with the country.
“Except for Islamabad, the entire country had been turned into a prison,” he lamented.
“If anyone wants to stay in this country, he should get bail. We pay tribute to the judiciary which has saved the system of the country until now,” Elahi said, adding that had there been no judiciary in the country, it was difficult to live here.
When answering a question about Nawaz Sharif, he said the former premier was an absconder, claiming that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif did not speak himself, but the language and thought of his friend Nawaz Sharif was behind his statements.
‘I haven’t forgotten’
Commenting on the raid at his residence, Elahi said that the court had pardoned the illegal attack on his house, but he had not forgiven.
The policemen robbed the house and took away mobile phones, wallets and motorcycles of the guests, who had come there. He said 20 of his people were still in jail, and more than 17 cases had been registered against him.
Elahi said: “Our close neighbours did not even ask us about the incident, and no one apologised. Mohsin Naqvi broke the gate of my house but went to the neighbours to apologise.”
The PTI president said more than 127 false cases had been fabricated against Imran Khan, just like in the past, when a false case was fabricated against Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi about a buffalo theft, which is famous today.
He said: “If we get a chance, we will come up with a system comprising retired judges, who will not allow such heinous acts to happen. Yet those who do so will be punished in a real sense.”
The former CM of Punjab said the SC decisions based on the supremacy of the Constitution had thwarted Nawaz’s plans to return to Pakistan.
“His [Nawaz] desire to humiliate Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial would never be fulfilled,” Elahi said, adding that Pakistan had been kept united by the Constitution and Imran Khan.
The former CM of Punjab said the Chinese foreign minister’s statement that the political forces in Pakistan should come together for stability was enough for the incompetent rulers if they understand it.
He said Abid Zuberi is the constitutional president of the Supreme Court Bar, and the PDM government punished him for speaking in favour of the judiciary. His restoration was a victory of the Constitution, he added.