Ahsan Iqbal rejects allegations: 'If you have evidence, produce it before me'

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday strongly denounced accusations of misusing his authority by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar. 

"Look, the chief justice can sit on the bench and say Ahsan Iqbal got a vice chancellor appointed," thundered Iqbal. "Mr Chief Justice have a heart. When you are disrespected, we are also disrespected."  

"You have no right to name-call people. You must issue me [a] charge sheet. If you have evidence, produce it before me but enough is enough." 

PTI's Naeemul Haq condemns Iqbal's statement

In an exclusive conversation with Geo News, political rival and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naeemul Haq condemned the interior minister's statement.    

"Ahsan Iqbal's statement is a violation of his oath and the Constitution," said Haq.

"PML-N follows the strategy of criticising the judiciary to take the spotlight away from allegations leveled against it," he said.

The PTI leader further added that the PML-N was perplexed with the approaching verdict on corruption cases against the party's supremo Nawaz Sharif. 

Asian tiger 

Iqbal, during the same event, had urged all national institutions to work together to make Pakistan an Asian tiger.

“All national institutions should work in solidarity to make Pakistan an Asian tiger,” Iqbal said while speaking at a seminar, CPEC Five Years: A Story of Success and Opportunities, in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The interior minister upheld, “We did not come into power for a personal agenda but to serve people and have developed Pakistan. We love Pakistan as much as anyone else."

“If you cannot appreciate the government’s performance then do not taunt it on a daily basis either,” he added.

“Now that we have reached our destination, some people have turned up with a pickaxe to destroy our garden,” he added. “But we will protect what we have sowed.”

Iqbal stressed that peace and stability are vital to reap benefits of CPEC. “If we get involved in conflicts, we will not be able to benefit from CPEC.”

He added, “CPEC has highlighted Pakistan's positive image across the world and a number of countries are keen to enter into a partnership with us.”

“We will not allow Pakistan’s progress to crash-land,” the interior minister asserted.

Iqbal further said the government has also launched the Productivity, Quality and Innovation (PQI) initiative to make Pakistan globally competitive.