So far, the opposition has not started a long march towards Islamabad nor has it sent its resignation to the Speaker, but the Prime Minister has started shocking things. Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of a university in Chakwal, Prime Minister Imran Khan said some things that you may not have heard from any other Prime Minister before.The Prime Minister claimed that the opposition wanted the army to overthrow him and remove the army chief if that did not happen. The Prime Minister also said that giving NRO to the opposition would be treason.
Believe it or not, this speech in Chakwal was the most dangerous speech of the year 2020. I don’t know why the Prime Minister made this dangerous speech in Chakwal but this speech is inviting us to think a lot. The speech was the headline of the TV channels on Saturday night.On Sunday morning, Nachiz read the speech over and over again in Urdu and English newspapers, trying to remember which meetings or press conferences the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDP) had used to force the army to overthrow the current government. What is the invitation?
It is true that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif criticized the Army Chief and the DG ISI in a video link from London, but the criticism was about alleged interference in the 2018 elections. In no speech did Nawaz Sharif ask the army to overthrow Imran Khan and if the army chief does not do so, he should be removed from his post. Apart from Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Akhtar Mengal and other leaders also criticized if it was about interfering in politics.
Slogans of respect for the vote continued to be heard in PDM meetings. How can those who are chanting slogans of respect the vote invite the army to intervene in politics? The allegations made by Imran Khan against the opposition in Chakwal cannot be easily ignored.If any opposition leader has indeed tried to incite the army against the elected government in any way other than a speech or a press conference, the nation should be informed of the details. An opposition leader may have written a secret letter to a military officer.
A similar letter was written on April 25, 1977 by Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan to military officers, asking them not to carry out illegal orders of the Bhutto government. It is also possible that there are people around the Prime Minister who are giving him false information or giving him wrong advice. When the Prime Minister says that giving NRO to the opposition would be treason, the question arises who can give NRO to the opposition?The term NRO came to prominence in 2007 when General Pervez Musharraf issued an ordinance to reconcile with the PPP, which targeted politicians and government officials who were involved in corruption, money laundering and assassination between January 1, 1986 and October 12, 1999. Cases were instituted and he was pardoned.
After this NRO, all the notoriety of PPP was wiped out though the beneficiaries were big bureaucrats including Barrister Forough Naseem’s Nelson Mandela and Musharraf’s ally Altaf Hussain to Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz and Brigadier (retd) Aslam Hayat Qureshi. There were also those who had nothing to do with the PPP. The NRO was quashed by a full bench of the Supreme Court on December 16, 2009. After this decision of the Supreme Court, no one in Pakistan can give NRO to anyone.