Abbasi Differs With Shehbaz On Reasons Of PML-N Defeat In 2018 General Elections

The former PM says that a truth commission be set up for investigation because it was the only way to end confusion.

LAHORE: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-August 3^rd,2021) PML-N contested the 2018 general elections on the basis of its five-year performance, so it could not be blamed for defeat, said former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

He said the party was ready and fit that time to contest election, because it was fully prepared.

Abbasi made this statement in reaction to PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks that they failed to win the general elections of 2018 only because they did not have the right strategy. Shehbaz Sharif had held the party itself responsible for defeat in general elections.

“If the PML-N leader had made a unanimous strategy in the pre-2018 election period Nawaz Sharif would have been elected prime minister for a fourth time. He was speaking on a local private tv on Monday night. Shehbaz Sharif said that they should learn lessons from the past and move forward if Pakistan wants to make real progress. The politicians, he said, had had personal interests throughout the history of Pakistan, allowed themselves to be used and pulled each other's legs. According to Shehbaz, blame was shared by all and not a single person or institution can be singled out.

Abbasi did not openly reject what Shehbaz had said. He said that politics admits of neither resistance nor reconciliation and it is the principles instead. Shehbaz always supported running the country in accordance with the Constitution, he said.

He said that Shehbaz only meant to explain Nawaz's remarks. He said Shehbaz also mentioned Imran Khan went overboard against the army before coming into power, pointing out that the PML-N supremo did not criticise the army as a whole. He demanded that a truth commission be set up for investigation because it was the only way to end confusion. He also said that the ex-chiefs of the ISI and army brought facts to light by writing books and giving interviews and the situation turned to be more confusion. Abbasi said that there was a single narrative of Nawaz Sharif and the party, pointing out that Nawaz always wanted every institution to function within its constitutional limits and the country to be run as per the Constitution.

He said: “No compromise is possible on law and the Constitution,”. He stated that PML-N would win the upcoming general elections if the masses were allowed to vote in a free and fair election. “If elections continue to be stolen, our country will remain in doldrums,” he added. The PML-N leader emphasised that rigging does not happen solely on election day. In fact, it started before the elections.

The PML-N recently faced defeats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections and a by-poll in Sialkot as an aggressive narrative led by Maryam Nawaz could not pay off, despite the fact that she pulled in large gatherings in the recent elections. Shehbaz Sharif remained out of the scene for electioneering in AJK.