Rana Sana moves speaker against Sheikh Rashid

Railways minister vows to challenge Shehbaz Sharif’s elevation as PAC chairman

LAHORE: In order to ridicule political opponent, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker took a dip on Friday and filed a reference with the National Assembly Speaker against Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, seeking investigation into a series of allegations.

Rana Sana and Sheikh Rashid have been in a war of words for a long time. But the filing of reference comes after Rashid’s hard-hitting press conference in which he was particularly harsh on the PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and his elevation as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

In the reference, Rana Sana not only requested Speaker Asad Qaiser to investigate the allegations of financial corruption against the minister but also requested for a medical examination of Sheikh Rashid to determine his gender.



Earlier on Friday, sometime after Sheikh Rashid’s press talk, Rana Sana released an approximately 4-minute video, along with a copy of a reference against Sheikh Rashid. In his video, he stated that he was filing the reference with a request to the Election Commission of Pakistan to disqualify Rashid.

He levelled many allegations against Rashid such as possessing ill-gotten money, purchasing Benami properties in the name of his relatives and exploiting the Kashmir cause. He accused Rashid of being a “liar and a fraud” and using his ministry – even in the past – to loot money.

He went on to claim that he had the documentary evidence to prove the allegations he has levelled against Rashid and intends to place them before the Speaker. “Sheikh Rashid does not deserve to be a part of this august house,” Rana said.

However, the PML-N did not back Rana Sana’s allegations publicly. The party denied comments, stating that “it is a reference of a member against another member” and had nothing to do with the PML-N. Several party leaders also refused to comment when approached by this correspondent.

This is not the first time a PML-N MNA takes a dip to ridicule political opponents. Every time such an episode unfolds, PML-N members blame the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for introducing a culture of intolerance in politics.

At the press conference earlier, Sheikh Rashid – who had served as a federal minister in the PML-N governments before parting ways during the Musharraf regime – rejected the appointment of Shehbaz Sharif as the PAC chairman and vowed to challenge it in court.

In the same press conference, Rashid termed Rana Sana a “dirty man”. He said that he was an ally of the PTI government but did not agree with the “selection of Shehbaz Sharif as PAC chairman”. He claimed that the speaker “has no right to make such an appointment”.



“If such sort of accountability is to be carried out, where a ‘thief’ is made in charge of accountability then it’s better to disband the whole accountability process,” he said. “Shehbaz’s selection as PAC chairman is not only morally wrong but also legally wrong.”

He alleged that a son and son-in-law of Shehbaz Sharif had absconded, while his other son was stopped, while trying to flee. “We are a country where a person like Ishaq Dar could flee the country in the prime minister’s plane. “If they can flee so can Asif Zardari, who has his own planes for the job.”

He said that whenever a powerful person is caught, either he becomes a blood pressure patient, or develops backache or some other disease. “When I was convicted for 7 years in weapons case, my production orders were issued after two and a half years,” he added.