'Offered premiership when I was in jail': Khawaja Asif reveals

• Was told PML-N leadership will have to wait for some time says Asif.
• "Previous government cobbled together by forging alliances."
• He adds, PTI not sincere with Pakistan; led to May 9 attacks.

KARACHI: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has revealed that he was offered the prime ministership while he was serving a prison term.

In an exclusive interview with Geo News, the defence minister said Friday: "While I was serving the prison term, a non-political personality approached me saying mine and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's names were being considered as the next prime minister. 

However, the defence minister didn't elaborate further on the matter.

"We were told that the PML-N leadership would have to wait for some time." 

Asif said he does know where this offer originated from but he said he told them that he wasn't interested but would have no objection if Khaqan Abbasi was ready for it.

He further said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was a majority party in Punjab during the 2018 elections, but despite that, PTI formed a provincial government, leading to a strong reaction.

Asif said that the previous government was cobbled together by forging alliances and had failed to deliver.

It was against that backdrop we thought of forming the provincial government in 2019.

The PML-N stalwart further said that his party had given a blank cheque to the army by allowing an extension to former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, and there was no give-and-take on that.

The PML-N leadership in London allowed an extension to the former army chief, which was a blank cheque to the military institution as the party did not strike any deal with the army.

"We did not ask for anything in return." PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had directed the party to vote for the extension, he said.

Moreover, he added that martial law results from a breakdown of ties between the army and the political leadership. In the last few years, there has always been a danger of martial law because of bad relations between the two.

Regarding the recent interview of the former Federal Bureau of Revenue chair Shabbar Zaidi, the defence minister said Zaidi was absolutely right in saying that if the PTI government had continued, it would have led to the country into default.

He claimed that Sajjad Burki — who happens to be Imran Khan's relative — campaigned against the IMF agreement with Pakistan.

Asif said the PTI leadership is not sincere with Pakistan, and that manifested in May 9 attacks on military installations and properties.