Widen probe to include Musharraf, Imran over RAW links, says Rashid

Information minister alleges NAB created by former dictator to target PML-N

LAHORE: Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid on Sunday appealed for an investigation against former dictator General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and all those politicians who had supported him for their suspected links with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Rashid’s comments come days after former Karachi mayor and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) senator Mustafa Kamal claimed that his party had ties with the Indian spy agency.



Speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the Advertising Booking Centers Association in Lahore on Sunday, Rashid said that any probe into MQM’s alleged ties with RAW should be expanded to include the likes of Musharraf because he had included MQM in his government.

The probe, Rashid said, should also include other members of the ‘Musharraf league’ such as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan who was part of the 2002 National Assembly which had been elected under Musharraf’s dictatorship. Rashid went on to ask why Imran had remained silent when he saw MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s posters in India.

“The interior minister has constituted a committee on the statements of Karachi-based trader Sarfraz Merchant. If Mustafa Kamal has evidence or information, he should present it before the [probe] committee,” Rashid said.



He was referring to the offer extended by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday to Kamal for sharing documentary evidence with the investigation committees, which were already looking into related cases.

Claiming that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was not afraid of accountability, the information minister accused Musharraf of creating the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) solely for exacting revenge from the PML-N.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2016.