Great honour if chosen to run Punjab: Raja Yasir

LAHORE: Raja Yasir Humayoon, the PTI MPA elected from PP-21, Chakwal, has said it will be a great honour for him if the party chairman Imran Khan chooses him to run Punjab.

However, he clarified there had been no indication either from Imran Khan or any other party official to this effect. Raja Yasir Humayoon, who got elected from Chakwal, a district falling in the Potohar region where the PTI bagged most of the seats in the July 2018 elections and is considered a close aide of Imran Khan, has been in the news these days as the possible choice of the PTI as Punjab CM. However, at the same time, his name is linked to two cases ‑ one pertaining to his conviction by the Drug Court and the second running an unregistered university.

Raja Yasir, however, denied the allegations while describing them as part of a propaganda campaign against him for unknown reasons and also termed himself a target of victimization in the PML-N era.

Talking to The News, Raja Yasir said his family had been active in politics since 1929 when his grandfather got elected in the Legislative Assembly whereas other members of his family have also been active in Chakwal politics. He said that besides contesting the 2013 general elections, he also had been quite active during the Dharna staged by the PTI against the Nawaz government in 2014 that continued for 126 days in Islamabad.

Responding to a question regarding the charges of running an unregistered university, he said it is a baseless allegation as there existed no university owned or run by him. He said he only runs an institution named Myer’s College with registration number PK035 and that is affiliated with the Cambridge University.

Regarding the case against him in the Drug Court in 2015, he said he approached a company named Shaheen Chemist in 2008 to open a branch in Chakwal in the year 2008. However, he said the negotiations continued till 2011 and later, he sold his 85% shares to different buyers but the license remained in his name. He said only 15% shares were kept by his mother so that the family could continue its philanthropist activities like providing medical facilities to people, setting up of medical camps, etc in the district.

He said some elements got active against him during the 2013 general elections and during those days, a person named Imran Ashraf, a salesman, was arrested from whom illegal drugs of not more than Rs 8,000 were recovered. The PTI MPA went on to say that he never had any link with the person named Imran Ashraf but he falsely named him after which he (Yasir) was arrested. He said he remained quite vibrant during the 2014 sit-in episode after which he became a target of the administration.

He said he was arrested by Drug Inspector Allah Ditta but despite the law, due procedure wasn’t followed and no hearing of this case against him was held by the DC that was also admitted by his representative in the Drug Court later. Raja Yasir said he was convicted by the Drug Court in July 2015 but just a few days later, a two member full bench of the Lahore High Court in Rawalpindi suspended the orders of the Drug Court and he was granted bail.

The PTI MPA went on to say that during the PML-N tenure, he preferred not to file application for speedy justice just because there were high chances that if he was given clean chit by the court, his opponents could have implicated him in other cases just to target him.

Now, he said he would file an application for speedy justice in the pending case that had been an example of political victimization. Even the party Chairman Imran Khan had mentioned this victimization against him in different public meetings, he said.

To another question regarding the circulation of his name in media sections and party circles for the slot of chief minister Punjab, Raja Yasir said he had so far been given no intimation by the party chairman in this regard. He said he recently held a meeting with the party chairman in which he had only discussed the education policy but added that it would be a great honour for him if Imran chose him for a responsibility in the province.