- Title: Pakistan's Imran Khan derides ousted PM's choice of successor
- Date: 29th July 2017
- Summary: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (JULY 29, 2017) (REUTERS) VIEW OF THE CITY FROM HILLTOP HOUSE OF OPPOSITION LEADER, IMRAN KHAN KHAN SEATED FOR INTERVIEW WITH REUTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAKISTANI OPPOSITION LEADER, IMRAN KHAN, SAYING: "The other problem we are facing is, that we actually - political parties don't have democracy in them. They are family parties. They are basically - families run the parties. Actually it's like a form of monarchy. The reason why democracy came in was because you wanted leadership on merit. You know people came through a process to become a leader. In monarchy, it's hereditary, it's through blood. We are still stuck into it. You know, we had the Bhutto family. We had the Wali Khan family. We have the Maulana Fazal ur Rahman family. And then we have the Sharif family." KHANS' HAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAKISTANI OPPOSITION LEADER, IMRAN KHAN, SAYING: "What they hope to do is to have an interim prime minister and then he will be replaced by the brother Shahbaz Sharif. But the problem is that Shahbaz Sharif himself has been implicated in corruption. There is a NAB, the (National) Accountability Bureau, there is a reference against him." KHAN LISTENING TO QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAKISTANI OPPOSITION LEADER, IMRAN KHAN, SAYING: "There is no charge on me; there is no money laundering because I got money - I used to play cricket, everyone knows that. From that money, I bought this land. I've got all the papers. I mean I'm in the Supreme Court because I also think that I should, as the head of a political party, as the biggest fund raiser in Pakistan who has the biggest charitable institutions in Pakistan, I should be accountable to the people. And that's what I'm doing. But there is no question of me being disqualified because I haven't done anything wrong." KHAN SEATED
- Embargoed: 12th August 2017 19:49
- Keywords: Imran Khan reaction Nawaz Sharif brother Shahbaz Sharif appointment pakistan opposition leader
- Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
- City: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016RRSHTZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Pakistani opposition party leader Imran Khan on Saturday (July 29) derided ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's choice of his brother to eventually succeed him, comparing the country's tradition of political dynasties to "a form of monarchy".
Sharif on Saturday announced plans for the ruling PML-N party to nominate his brother, Shahbaz, as the country's new leader, after an interim period with a caretaker prime minister.
Khan's opposition party spearheaded the corruption complaint that led to the Supreme Court's disqualification of Nawaz Sharif on Friday (July 28). Khan laughed off questions about possibility of his disqualification, saying he had done nothing wrong.
For now, the nuclear-armed South Asian country is without a leader until parliament convenes to elect a new premier. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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