Khursheed Shah 'condemns' PM Khan's speech on Asia Bibi acquittal

PPP leader Khursheed Shah, during Thursday's National Assembly session, lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan over the premier's address to the nation on Asia Bibi's acquittal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

"I strongly condemn the prime minister's address to the nation. The chief executive of the state should not have said what he said," remarked Shah, adding that he could not even "repeat" parts of PM Khan's speech.

The former opposition leader asked PM Khan to come to the parliament prior to his trip to China tonight.

According to Shah, "it is good that media is not showing all this [protests] as they have the sense that it will not be good for the country. But social media is showing everything".

Further criticising PM Khan over his address, Shah said that yesterday, the tone of the premier was aggressive.

"There was violence in his tone. You cannot bring peace with this tone," he added.

Last night, following the sharp reaction from Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after Asia Bibi's acquittal, PM Khan in a short address to the nation regretted that the demonstrators had termed the chief justice “liable to be killed”.

Declaring that the elements inciting people against the judiciary and army just to enlarge their vote bank were not serving the cause of Islam, the premier had warned the groups that had mounted protests to desist from confronting the state.

In reply, Federal Minister for Higher Education Shafqat Mehmood called Shah's speech full of hypocrisy.

"Khursheed Shah condemned Imran Khan's speech but did not condemn those people who are challenging the writ of the state," pointed out Mehmood. "Instead of praising the prime minister for taking a bold stand, he is criticising him."

"The prime minister is not in the house but yesterday, he addressed 200 million people of this country directly. I condemn Khursheed Shah for using this matter for small political gains."

On his turn, PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique said that the religious card which had been used by the PTI against the previous PML-N government was now being used against it.

"We believe that Imran Khan's body language and tone was aggressive during his address," he said.

Referring to the prime minister's speech, Saad said, "Today you are saying that blocking roads is not an appropriate action but yesterday you were giving calls to the people to block roads and lock down cities."