Gilani: Imran has no future in Pakistan

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan had no future in Pakistani politics. “I wonder if he will win his own seat in Miawali,” Gilani told UK-based Pakistani media in London. Separately in interviews with the CNN and Guardian newspaper he poured scorn on Imran and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif trashing their demand for his resignation after conviction by the Supreme Court. Gilani also scoffed at suggestions that Imran may be Pakistan’s next prime minister of Pakistan. “He’s a good cricketer. But he has no future in Pakistan,” he said. “If I’m disqualified, notified by the Speaker, then yes I have to,” he said. Gilani defended himself just as strongly as he defended Pakistan and the course it has taken in battling terrorism. “Whatever I have done is according to the constitution,” he claimed. “It (conviction) is not on any moral turpitude or financial corruption.” He described the furore over his conviction by the Supreme Court on contempt charges as ‘a storm in teacup.” He said the Supreme Court’s verdict had no impact whatsoever and he had nothing to fear, as he was not complicit in any illegal, unconstitutional or immoral activity. The issue of his conviction did not figure during his discussions with the British premier David Cameron, as the verdict was not a matter that concerned the outside world. Also, while inaugurating Consular Services hall at the Pakistan embassy in London, Gilani made a scathing attack against Nawaz Sharif and blamed him for overreacting to the judgement for the sake of his own publicity and to serve his political objectives. “We do not want two interpretations of the law: one by the courts of the land and one by the Sharif courts,” he said, adding, that Sharifs have opted for politics of agitation by leading protest demonstrations over loadshedding which was dangerous for the country. “If they (Sharifs) choose the politics of confrontation it will be a nail in the coffin of their politics of agitation. Their intentions are evil. They are making Pakistan a laughing stock in the world.” Gilani decried corruption charges against him and his family members saying that there is no corruption case against him in any court. He also questioned why only politicians were picked up for trial on corruption charges while military dictators were allowed to go scot-free even after committing a murder.