Jahangir Tareen advises Nawaz Sharif not to create narrative based on individuals

• Tareen asks Nawaz to return to Pakistan if he wants to settle matters.
• General elections have to happen at all costs, says Tareen.
• IPP top leader welcomes form PTI MNA Muzna Hasan to party.

Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) Patron-in-Chief Jahangir Khan Tareen on Friday advised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif not to create a narrative for his party based on a few individuals.

“Nawaz Sharif should not have created a narrative by naming any person [and] he should not have named the former army chief and the chief justice,” Tareen said while talking to the media after the inclusion of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) MNA Munaza Hassan to the IPP. He added that if Nawaz “wanted to settle his matters with someone” then he has to come back to Pakistan.

The IPP leader also said that his party did not have any questions about a level-playing field given to political parties. “Elections have to happen at all costs and all parties should get an equal chance in the elections,” 

Tareen added that his party would try to work on improving the country’s situation and fulfilling all the hopes people have from the IPP.

The PML-N supremo plans to return to Pakistan on October 21 and the senior leadership of the party has been consulting with the three-time prime minister to finalise his homecoming plan.

Recently, in his interactions with the media, Nawaz has been demanding the accountability of those involved in the alleged toppling of his government.

Earlier this month, Nawaz had said that Pakistan would have been on track to host a G20 Summit had the momentum set by his government in 2017 continued.

The deposed prime minister made the comments to reporters outside Stanhope House in London when he was questioned about the recently concluded G20 summit in Delhi.

"If the 2017 momentum was maintained, Pakistan would have been counted in the G20 and the summit would have been hosted in Pakistan," the PML-N leader had relied when asked about India's rising economic and geopolitical prominence in the region.

Nawaz made these remarks referring to his disqualification from office after a Supreme Court ruling in 2017 disqualified him from public office for not declaring the Iqama he had of his son Hasan Nawaz Sharif’s Dubai company. Nawaz has said that he was thrown out of office for not taking a salary from his son.

Nawaz has repeatedly made direct and veiled criticism against the judiciary in recent months, accusing former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial of bias and preferential treatment towards PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

Publicly, Nawaz had accused former CJP Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa, as well as former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa Bajwa and ex-ISI chief Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed of engineering his removal from the government. 

He had also said that the "Gang of Five" — Saqib Nisar, Imran Khan, Gen Faiz, Gen Bajwa and Asif Saeed Khosa — were responsible for bringing Pakistan to this level.