ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday requested the country's army and intelligence chiefs to provide any evidence of a connection between the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan and any conspiracy hatched by a foreign power against the government.
The opposition brought the no-confidence motion against the prime minister last month, saying he had lost his parliamentary majority after mismanaging the country's economy and failing to provide good governance. However, the deputy speaker of the national assembly disallowed voting on the motion after the government claimed it was part of an elaborate conspiracy to bring about "regime change" by a foreign power in Pakistan.
The government used a diplomatic cable, which also came under discussion at a National Security Council meeting attended by the country's top military and intelligence chiefs, to substantiate its claim.
"[Prime Minister Imran Khan] Niazi has shamelessly accused entire Opposition in NA [national assembly of being traitors," Sharif wrote in a Twitter post. "I demand of Army Chief & DG ISI [director general inter-services intelligence] to furnish proofs if we have committed any treason or we have used foreign funding & support in our no-trust motion. We will not let coward Niazi get away with these charges."
He also denied having received any letter from President Arif Alvi regarding the nomination of interim prime minister during a media interaction at the Supreme Court building.
The country's former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain announced on Twitter on Monday that Prime Minister Imran Khan had nominated former chief justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed for the post of the interim prime minister.
Subsequently, the media reported the president had written a letter to Khan and Sharif under Article 224-A (1) of the constitution.
"As I speak, I have not received officially any letter from President Alvi [regarding the appointment of interim prime minister]," Sharif said, adding: "When the letter will arrive, we will definitely consult our lawyers and allies."
However, he maintained the president and prime minister were guilty of violating the constitution which needed to be discussed before anything else.
Asked about the opposition leaders' refusal to attend a parliamentary committee meeting on national security in which the government said it wanted to share the evidence of foreign conspiracy against it, he said he had received a "verbal invitation at the eleventh hour."
"I asked if other leaders of the opposition were also invited and discovered that none of them had received any invitation," he said. "I was solely invited through verbal communication at the eleventh hour ... There is a proper way of doing this whereby they could have sent me an invitation in writing."
The opposition's alleged refusal to attend the meeting was also raised by Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial during the Supreme Court hearing into the ongoing political turmoil in the country on Monday.