Imran Khan slams Sharif for accusing army chief of rigging polls

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan  lashed out  former premier Nawaz Sharif for accusing the army chief of rigging elections and installing a "puppet government" in Islamabad.Hitting back at Sharif, Khan said on Saturday that the PML-N supremo came to politics by "polishing General Zia's shoes" - a reference to Sharif joining politics in 1980s during the martial law of then military dictator General Zia-ul Haq.

Khan said Sharif opted to use negative language against the army leadership at a time when soldiers were sacrificing their lives for the nation."Why are they sacrificing their lives? For us; for the country. And this jackal who ran, used such language for the army chief and DG ISI," Khan said. Khan said that Sharif took "crores" of rupees from Meeran Bank in late 1980s to fight elections against Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). "This is the man who put  Zardari in jail twice. It was Zardari who instituted the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against Sharif, not General Bajwa," said Khan.

He also targeted PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz, saying the two "children" who have never worked for an hour in their life and lived by using the "ill-gotten gains of their fathers" were making speeches.Khan said these leaders would even sell the country to protect their wealth that they amassed through illegal means.Sharif leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) who was ousted from power in 2017 by the apex court on graft charges, on Friday for the first time directly named Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI head Lt Gen Faiz Hameed for interfering in the elections of 2018 to ensure victory of Imran Khan.