Imran condemns PM’s Badshahat style of governance

ISLAMABAD, October 14: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Friday condemned the Badshahat style of governance that has been the hallmark of Nawaz Sharif’s rule every time he has come to power.
Sheltering behind a facade of democracy, Sharif’s sole purpose while being in power has been personal aggrandisement and the building up of his business empire. The recent judgment of the LHC against Sharif’s defiance of a ban on setting up new sugar Mills in cotton growing areas of Punjab shows how the Sharifs have always seen themselves against laws of the land, said Imran in a statement Friday.
The ban on setting up of new sugar Mills in cotton growing areas was upheld by the SC but in a bid to circumvent this ban purely to facilitate the Sharif family sugar mills, the Punjab govt notified a Relocation of sugar mills policy. This reflected the Badshahat of the Sharifs where CM Sharif makes a policy defying the law to benefit Sharifs the businessmen.
Luckily for the nation, the LHC, where this notification was challenged, overturned the Punjab govt’s policy meant to serve Sharif’ business interests. Khan pointed out that amongst the main points of LHC judgement were the following:
That the notification was a deliberate means to create a mechanism to circumvent the ban and it also prejudiced national interest. The LHC judgement also reminded that Public officers are trustees of public funds and public property and are expected to take decisions based on public interest.
The LHC questioned whether the relocation policy was issued for national interest or personal interest? And it concluded that in this case, the relocation policy has not benefitted the national interest but is aimed to facilitate certain sugar mills which happen to be owned by the families of the Chief Minister, Punjab and the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This was a categorical condemnation of the Sharif’s badshahat-style of governance.
The LHC went further and stated in its judgement: The decision making process in this case was not initiated in national interest or public interest. The process was initiated to protect certain business interests at the expense of national interest and public interest. In a stinging critique of the personalised monarchical style of the Sharif’s governance, the LHC judgement added: The matter does not end here, The Govt. not only designed a policy to cater to a few sugar mills but it also failed to take action against the respondent sugar mills for establishing new sugar mills without any permission. Khan asserted that the Panama Papers have revealed the Sharif’s corruption, tax evasion and hiding of assets. The courts are increasingly giving judgements against the Sharif’s Badshahat-style of governance for personal benefits. It is time the Sharifs presented themselves for accountability or resigned from their public offices. -NNI