Former Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif rejects waging 'personal vendetta' against Imran Khan

Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denied allegations that he is pursuing a “personal vendetta” against former Prime Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan. The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician is currently in jail after a trial court in Islamabad sentenced him to three years in prison in the infamous Toshakhana case. In the past, Khan and his supporters accused Sharif of taking out "personal vengeance" against the PTI chief. However, Sharif who recently stepped down from the premiership dismissed such accusations. 

In one of his last interviews before heading out from the office, Sharif lambasted “shabby treatment of opposition leaders” by Khan and accused the PTI chief of sending his dissenters behind bars when he was the Prime Minister. “Victimisation is not in [my] dictionary,” Sharif insisted. Amid the grave economic crisis, the tussle between Imran Khan and the ruling regime in Pakistan has stirred intense political turmoil in the cash-strapped country.

“We were treated shabbily and the jail manual was violated when Khan was PM. "We were terribly victimised. But we don’t believe in tit for tat … Relevant institutions, courts and rule of law would take its course in Khan’s [legal case],” Sharif told The Guardian in an exclusive interview. 

Putting forward his case, Sharif mentioned the recent report published by the American news outlet The Intercept about some secret diplomatic cable that has unleashed a storm in Pakistan. “Now tell me, it is very unbecoming of any political, serious-minded leader to indulge in this kind of black-and-white lies. Khan said he had the [cable] but he had lost it. Now it has been published on a website,” he said. On August 9, Sharif advised the country’s president to dissolve the National Assembly, days before its tenure was supposed to end. The exit paved was for a caretaker setup to take over which is now being led by Balochistan Senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. 

Sharif dismisses the unfair poll accusation

During his exclusive interview with The Guardian, Shehbaz Sharif touched upon the upcoming general elections in the cash-strapped country. He stated that the concerns over the fair conduct of elections in Pakistan are “totally baseless”. He made it clear that despite all the delays, the polls will be conducted in a fair manner. “We are the victims of fraud in elections in 2018. The reasons are well known. We hope this mistake will never be repeated,” Sharif said. He distanced himself from speculations that Khan’s PTI would face a ban before the elections. “I really don’t know. It is all up to the court to decide. Personally, I don’t want any political party to be banned,” he remarked.