Rawalpindi (Staff Report): Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor has termed the statement of PML-N leader Rana Mashhood as irresponsible.
In a tweet message, he said such irresponsible expressions are detrimental to stability in the country. He said attribution of an obvious vested statement by Rana Mashhood is baseless and regrettable.
Earlier on Tuesday, in an interview to a private television channel, PML-N leader Rana Mashhood said that the party that won the election was being considered as a horse turned out to be a mule.
“It is now strongly felt that Shehbaz Sharif would have been a better choice. If he had been prime minister, he would have handled things much better,” he said.
The former Punjab minister said that Shehbaz had always been acceptable to the establishment because he talked about harmony between state institutions
Mashhood said an agreement of sort had been reached between the two sides (the PML-N and the establishment) all institutions would work in their domain.
When he was asked that Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan had talked about tensions between the civilian government and the military, he said, “Things have greatly improved as they [the establishment] have realised that they are banking on wrong people.”
He said independent candidates, who helped PTI gain majority in Punjab, were now having a “change of hearts”.
The PML-N leader said that the next two months were very important as the results of the by-elections will also be in.
He said that Hamza Shehbaz would be PML-N’s candidate for the post of Punjab chief minister.
The PML-N leader also spoke of the situation changing once the constituencies, which had election petitions pending in tribunals and high courts, were opened.
However, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) distanced itself from Rana Mashhood's statement in which he alluded to the provincial government changing hands from the PTI to the PML-N.
PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Mashhood's statement reflected his personal opinion.
"Rana Mashhood's statement has nothing to do with the PML-N or its leadership," she said.
Marriyam said the party was seeking an explanation from Mashhood with regard to his statement.