Abbasi dares ministers to become witnesses in sedition case

Ag APP

LAHORE: In the latest development in the sedition case against the top leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has challenged government ministers to become witnesses in the proceedings and said he would file a case against Prime Minister Imran Khan over recent allegations made by former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general.

“I too want to get a case registered. I will go to Lahore tomorrow go to Shahdara (the police station where the sedition case was registered). My FIR will be against Prime Minister Imran Khan,” the PML-N leader said in a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Abbasi said the ex-DG FIA, Bashir Memon, had alleged that Prime Minister Khan told him to move against the opposition. He added the claims made by the former head of the FIA “have proven that Prime Minister Imran Khan is obsessed with the opposition”.

According to Geo News, the PML-N leader further challenged the ministers to come forward and arrest the suspects in the sedition case, asking the government to conduct an open trial in front of the people of Pakistan. He added that today, India and Modi must be “laughing” at Pakistan.

Hitting back at the government, Abbasi asked the ministers not to distribute “certificates of treachery” and solve the problems of the people.

Separately, Mohammad Zubair, spokesman for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and Attaullah Tarar visited the Shahdara Police Station and met an officer of and discussed the case against the party leaders. Talking to media afterwards, the former Sindh governor said: “This is the first case of its kind in which the accused came to the police station [to surrender] themselves and the investigation officer disappeared before their arrival.”

“If no one is willing to take responsibility for the sedition case registered against the party leadership, it should be dismissed,” he added.

Zubair also said it “does not matter” how many cases were registered against the PML-N, the party will participate in the anti-government movement “no matter what”.

In response, federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said the opposition parties “have no moral ground to launch the anti-government movement” and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been given a mandate by the people to “bring those who had plundered the national wealth to justice”.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, Faraz said the main objective of the opposition leaders to hold public gatherings was “to secure their personal interests” and the leadership of both the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-N were using different tactics to “hide their corruption”. “The PTI government, however, will not make any compromise and continue accountability of the corrupt elements,” he added.