Govt won’t spare people insulting army: Sheikh Rashid

The country’s top security czar has announced that the PTI government is going to prosecute the people using derogatory language against the armed forces within 72 hours.

“Cases will be registered against people using foul language against the armed forces within 72 hours,” Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid said on Saturday, a day after Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman harshly criticized the country’s military leadership.

Addressing the media after a PDM meeting in Lahore, Fazl had said the opposition would decide if it should march to Islamabad or to Rawalpindi, where the headquarters of the Pakistan Army is located.

“All parties [in the 11-party opposition alliance] agree that the establishment has held the system of the country hostage and created a deep state,” the Mualana had said.

Commenting on Fazlur Rehman’s statement, the interior minister said the PDM chief should learn to distinguish between Islam, the religion, and Islamabad, the centre of the country’s political power.

“Fazl has flustered. Luck is not in his favour,” Rashid said in an apparent reference to the rebellion of some key members in Fazl’s party JUI-F and the announcement of these leaders to revive the JUI-P, an older organization from which the JUI-F branched off.

“We will lodge cases against people targeting the army in 72 hours. We have sent the case of [JUI-F leader] Mufti Kifayat Ullah to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) for registration of a case [in view of his recently televised comments against the army],” he said.

Rashid commended the PDM’s decision to participate in the upcoming by-elections, apparently on the insistence of one of the leading opposition parties PPP and said the PPP won while the PDM lost.

The PDM – formed in September last year with the avowed aim to dislodge the PTI government –concluded the first phase of its anti-government campaign in December after holding six rallies.

On December 14, the PDM announced that all lawmakers from the opposition parties would submit their resignations from the assembly seats to their respective party leadership by December 31. It had also set a deadline for the government to quit by January 31.

The minister said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari “played well” while PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is also making a better way for his party. However, he said, the PML-N has created difficulties for itself by using unparliamentary language.

Rashid said the PDM parties are only fooling the nation as they would neither submit their resignations from legislatures nor they would boycott the upcoming by-polls or the Senate election. “They will only stage a long march. When they do that we will also demonstrate our legal rights.”

 The minister said the PPP actually brought the PDM to its knees. “[The yesterday’s press conference shows that] the PDM has accepted its defeat but the PPP has emerged victorious.” 

Talking with reference to the PDM’s announcement to stage protests outside the offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the minister said NAB is not going to be rolled back due to the opposition’s protests.

“NAB should take action against us even if we commit corruption. NAB has already arrested two ministers of the ruling PTI due to their corruption.”

He said the opposition parties particularly the PPP and the PML-N did not amend the NAB law during their respective tenures from 2008 till 2018. However, they came up with 34 NAB amendments as soon as the government decided to bring in legislation with regard to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“The PDM must know that Prime Minister Imran Khan can resign but he will not surrender to the corrupt,” Sheikh Rashid claimed. He reiterated that the passport of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will expire on February 16 and that his passport will not be renewed.

The minister said an online visa facility has been provided to people of 192 countries and 200,000 applications are received in 24 hours for online visas.

“100,000 identity cards are issued daily and the first identity card is issued in 15 days. The National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) office in Rawalpindi issues 1,500 cards every day,” he said.