Rana Sana reminds KP, Punjab govts of consequences of failing to establish writ

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan has asked the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to open up the national highways and motorways in their jurisdictions and avoid creating trouble for people under the protection of police.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the minister said that provincial governments should fulfill their constitutional duty, otherwise there would be consequences. He said that it was the constitutional duty of provincial governments to protect the rights of people and the federal government was reminding the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab governments about this duty.

He said that both the provincial governments were reminded of their constitutional responsibility about the restoration of traffic on national highways and motorways in their jurisdictions and to ensure peace in their limits.

He also called on the chief justices of the apex and high courts of Punjab, Islamabad and Peshawar to take notice of the protests, saying that people causing trouble for citizens would later approach the court for relief.

He said a handful of protesters were agitating in various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkwa as well as Punjab and causing inconvenience for citizens. “The nation has rejected the PTI’s march and I apologised to the people affected by the march on behalf of the federal government, its allies and prime minister,” said Rana Sanaullah.

Protesters were burning tyres and blocking roads. Later, they film videos to show that a sea of citizens is protesting, said the interior minister, adding that citizens were being prevented from going to hospitals, picking up their children from schools and running important errands.

He said that at some sites, the protesters had blocked roads from both sides and police were assisting them by placing barriers. Citizens have shown resentment on such attitude of PTI protesters and situation would be tense if people started reacting over such protests, he added.

The minister reiterated that only a few thousand people had joined the party’s march, which was intent on pushing the country toward chaos. He said that only one suspect, Naveed, had been arrested for involvement in the Wazirabad incident and there was no other suspect.

He said that the suspect had the same motivations as those behind the attacks on Ahsan Iqbal and the attack on Khawaja Asif. The minister said the suspect was self-motivated and was not a part of any political or religious party. All the people, who were in contact with him, are being investigated.

Regarding the allegations of Imran Khan about the Wazirabad incident and his wish to include three personalities in it, the minister said there must be some sort of evidence for the first information report (FIR) to be registered, otherwise, anybody would be free to lodge complaint against their opponents.

By that argument, someone can ever register a case against the chief justice, the minister added. To a question, he said that the prime minister as per his information had written to Chief Justice of Pakistan for judicial commission to examine the assassination attempt on PTI chief Imran Khan and Arshad Sharif case.

He requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to consider the appeal of the mother of journalist Arshad Sharif and form a commission as per her satisfaction to investigate the case. He said that the investigation team had briefed him after his return from Kenya about the assassination of Arshad Sharif and it had done a commendable job.

As per initial information, this seemed to be a murder and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan would be asked to contact the government of Kenya for further cooperation in this case.