Faisal Kamal Pasha
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair Umar has said that the “conspiracy narrative” presented by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has succeeded and “helped him hush up his failures.”
Talking exclusively to We News, Zubair said that Imran Khan’s “conspiracy narrative” has prevailed despite the fact he failed to deliver when he was in power. At the same time, Zubair also said that Imran Khan wants elections but such elections where only he wins with a two-thirds majority; otherwise, he has to start crying again.
Zubair said that the fact was that Imran Khan won only one election of the 13 by-elections held when he was in power. He said the PML-N suffered a crushing defeat in by-elections after the Pakistan Democratic Movement government came to power.
“I opposed Asad Umar’s entry into politics and told him that he should not opt for politics, especially avoid joining the PTI,” Zubair said adding that “Imran Khan has nothing to do with democracy and he is a person with an authoritarian temperament.”
When asked if their political differences affect their family relations, Zubair said that family unity was his biggest sacrifice over his politics. “When Asad Umar was blamed for PTI’s poor economic performance, there was an impression in the family that I also had a role in it. My direct relationship with Assad has never deteriorated. There is so much opposition at the party level (between the PML-N and PTI) that both of us have to keep distance from each other. Asad Umar never complained about criticising the PTI government.”
‘PML-N ready for elections’
Muhammad Zubair said that the PML-N is ready for elections and the party’s chief organiser Maryam Nawaz was campaigning vigorously. He also said that elections should be held on time as the constitution says that elections should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the assembly. “And the 90 days mean that there should be no delay or extension (in holding elections) more than the 90 days. He, however, said holding elections in only some assemblies can compromise transparency in the whole election process because, in the presence of a provincial government, it becomes very difficult to maintain neutrality while holding elections on national assembly seats in a province.
Responding to a question about the ‘unease’ among senior members of the party over Maryam Nawaz’s getting a senior slot, Zubair said that in the past, when Benazir Bhutto and later when Bilawal Bhutto were given leadership roles in their party, people spoke in a murmur, but over time, things settled.
‘Two ideological groups in PML-N’
When asked if there were two ideological groups in the PML-N, Zubair said that most of the party’s senior leaders have worked with Shehbaz Sharif in Punjab and they like his work and ideology. Similarly, he said, several party members have worked with Nawaz Sharif in the federation. Due to this fundamental difference, two different ideological teams are considered to exist in the party. He said that despite all this, Nawaz Sharif takes all party decisions and Shehbaz Sharif accepts them.
Zubair said that (general retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa was not his friend. Bajwa Sahib supported Imran Khan for more than five years during his six years in office. “That is why Imran Khan praised him (Bajwa) to a degree that it had no precedence in the past of a ruler praising an army chief.”
On a question about taking gifts from Toshakhana, Zubair said that Imran Khan took the watch from Toshakhana without depositing money and later deposited the money by selling the watch on a fake receipt. In contrast, the shop where the watch was sold did not exist. He said that no leader sold his gift in the market apart from Imran Khan.
