Nawaz Sharif says voters 'rejected' PTI in cantonment elections

• Nawaz Sharif says his fight is not against the establishment but for the supremacy of the Constitution.
• Former premier says he will return to Pakistan "at the right time".
• Says he is thankful to Allah for PML-N sweeping Punjab in cantonment board elections, but alleges that government machinery was used to support PTI candidates.

LONDON: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that voters "rejected" the PTI in the cantonment board elections held in Pakistan on Sunday.

The former prime minister, who has been living in London since November 2019, was speaking to around a dozen Pakistani reporters at his son’s office near Hyde Park Corner. The meeting lasted for two hours during which the journalists asked him questions about his relations with the military, his return to Pakistan, friction within the PML-N, the situation in Afghanistan and the cantonment board elections.

The PML-N supremo said he has "no issue" with the establishment of Pakistan and the pivot of his struggle is the supremacy of the Constitution and democracy.

Sharif said he has been put in jail on several occasions on “fake and concocted charges” in order to punish him for the stance he has taken for democracy in Pakistan. “I have no fight with the establishment or anyone, and there never will be (such a fight). I want respect for the democratic mandate of the people’s elected representatives, no interference in the functioning of the government and supremacy of the parliament and the Constitution.”

The PML-N supremo said he will be returning to Pakistan once cleared by his doctors. He said he was getting treatment in London and will be returning to Pakistan "at the right time" without fearing the consequences.

“I didn’t care for jails and sufferings when my wife was dying in London and I went to jail with my daughter, from London, in a fake case which was made to oust me from power to rig the 2018 elections. Those who ask if I am scared of jails should know that jails are nothing new for me: I spent months in Landhi jail and was tortured in a fake hijacking case. Pervez Musharraf imprisoned me in a fort but I didn’t compromise on my stance, didn’t withdraw from my principled position. I stood by my stance and this stance has to win. It will win Inshallah. ”

About the recent cantonment board elections, he said that he was grateful to Allah that his party candidates swept Punjab but alleged that there was "rigging" in these elections and that government machinery was used to support PTI candidates. “Pakistan is suffering as a result of the policies of this government, I wonder who could vote for such a party which has brought so much misery to the people. We have been vindicated in these elections.”

Sharif told reporters that he was disqualified for life by the Supreme Court judges — many of whom are now retired — for not taking a salary from his son, but their "double standards have been exposed". 

"Judge Arshed Malik, before his death, said that he was blackmailed to convict me and Justice Shaukat Siddiqui told the Supreme Court of Pakistan how was put under pressure to victimise me and Maryam before 2018 elections. 

"Is this justice?" he asked.