Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused political rival and former three-times premier Nawaz Sharif of “playing India’s game” by criticising the country’s powerful military, as a bitter political feud deepens in the South Asian nation.
Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party that came into power in 2018, was speaking during an interview broadcast late on Thursday.
Now he [Sharif] has gone [to the United Kingdom] and is playing India’s game. He is attacking Pakistan sitting over there. He is 100 percent getting backing [from India], he is a coward and without that, he could not be doing anything,” said Khan.
The prime minister was responding to renewed attacks on the government in recent weeks by Sharif, whose Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party has joined an opposition alliance in a bid to topple Khan’s government.
Sharif has been living in the UK since last November, when he left Pakistan on medical bail to receive treatment for a blood platelet issue that doctors said threatened his life. He was convicted and imprisoned on corruption charges in 2018, but was granted bail during his appeal.
Earlier on Thursday, Sharif addressed party leaders at a high-level meeting through a video link, accusing the government of using “dual standards of accountability” in its anti-corruption drive.
On Monday, anti-corruption officials arrested Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s younger brother and PML-N president, after his petition for an extension of bail in a corruption case was rejected.
Khan has made the anti-corruption drive a centrepiece of his rule, with his government pursuing cases against the Sharifs, former President Asif Ali Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Fazl faction) chief Fazal-ur Rehman and other leaders.
Several key opposition figures, including Shehbaz Sharif’s son, are behind bars, while others are out on bail as they fight the charges in court.
Critics say the accountability drive has been one-sided, disproportionately targeting Khan’s political opponents, while leaving members of his PTI or its allies largely untouched.
“The [anti-corruption watchdog] seems reluctant in proceeding against people on one side of the political divide […] while those on the other side are being arrested and incarcerated for months and years without providing any sufficient cause,” read a Supreme Court verdict in a corruption case in July.