Former PM slams ‘foolish’ FIR against PTI leaders

PTI Chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan on Sunday condemned the registration of blasphemy cases against him and other leaders of his party, deeming the move as “foolish”. Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, the former prime minister claimed that the behaviour of the Pakistani pilgrims was a reaction to the “rage” felt by citizens over the new government.

The FIRs under blasphemy laws were lodged against the PTI chief and other top leaders of the previous government across Punjab, it surfaced on Sunday, over the recent incident of pilgrims, apparently supporters of the party, surrounding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's delegation in Masjid-i-Nabwi and shouting slogans.

Former interior minister Sheikh Rashid’s nephew, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, was taken into custody on arrival at the new Islamabad airport from Saudi Arabia and handed over to the Attock police station, where he was nominated in one of the FIRs.

The former premier maintained that the country’s leaders operated as a “mafia” that “bought loyalties” or resorted to pressing charges. “They [the coalition leaders] will be treated like this in any country that has Pakistanis,” he said. “We were offering our prayers at the time this incident took place. They should be ashamed of accusing us.”

Read Imran to issue whitepaper on ‘corruption of Sharif family’

The PTI chief also condemned the arrest of the former interior minter nephew earlier on Sunday at the Islamabad airport. Reacting to the news of the FIRs, former federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted: “Bring it on, we will fight it.” PTI leader Shahbaz Gill, who is among the top party leaders named in the FIRs, also took to his official Twitter handle, saying that the party was ready to fight the cases.

Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, in a series of tweets, said she was not surprised by the "dirty tricks" of registering a "fake FIR". She described Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah as a "shameless criminal".

She said that the move showed that PM Shehbaz, whom she termed as "crime minister", and "his cabal of crooks brought in by the US regime change conspiracy [are] getting desperate because they have no legitimacy amongst nation".

Mazari also took a broadside at the PPP. She wrote: “Look how low AZ's (Asif Zardari’s) PPP has fallen to become part of this desperate ‘Imported’ govt scheme!” She termed it "unfortunate" that the "dark shadows continue to provide an invisible cloak of protection to such low life criminal actions by their chosen ones".

In his news conference, the deposed premier claimed the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) inquiry against Farah Khan, a close friend of his wife Bushra Bibi, was unfounded and deemed the charges against her a “political vendetta” against him.

Presenting a white paper on corruption charges against the new coalition government, the former premier defended Farah, stating that “she is absolutely innocent” and claiming her only “fault” was her close ties with his wife.

Imran added that there was a precedent for the “vendetta”, comparing the situation to the case against his former wife Jemima Goldsmith for smuggling antique tiles. The former PM’s remarks come days after NAB had authorised an inquiry against Farah for accumulating "illegal assets beyond known sources of income, money laundering, and maintaining various accounts in the name of businesses".

In a statement, NAB had said: “A huge turnover amounting to Rs847 million has been found in [Farah’s] account during the last three years, which does not commensurate with her stated account profile.”
Presenting his white paper on the corruption charges against the PML-N leadership, Imran said PM Shehbaz was on bail alongside his son, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, on charges of money laundering.

Accusing the PML-N leaders of “robbing the country for 30 years”, the former PM claimed that no corruption cases were filed against the incumbent regime during the PTI’s tenure. “All cases of the Sharif family were established from 2008 to 2018. In our time, NAB was an independent body,” Imran said, adding that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had filed only one case against Shehbaz during the PTI's tenure, for funnelling money to his domestic staff’s accounts.

Read More: FIR lodged against Imran, others under blasphemy laws over incident at Masjid-e-Nabwi

The former premier said that there were cases pending against PM Shehbaz with the FIA, amounting to Rs16 billion. He accused the PML-N leaders of interfering with the investigative authorities, stating that the officers and prosecutors involved in the cases had been "exchanged" or barred from going to court.

“They [the government] will destroy the records, they are only concerned about eliminating their cases of corruption,” the ousted prime minister claimed.

The PTI chairman revealed that apart from the Panama Papers leak, the Sharif family had hidden properties and a total of 16 cases worth Rs40-45 billion were pending. "These cases are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Imran reiterated his criticism of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, saying his party had "no confidence" in him. He alleged that the CEC, at every opportunity, had "victimised" the PTI.

The PTI chairman said his party believed that the CEC had influenced the courts when it was about to make its decision on early elections. “He [CEC] told the courts that it would take six to seven months to conduct elections.”

Imran said the courts should have dismissed him and brought a new CEC because according to the Constitution, elections had to be called within 90 days of announcement. Imran was referring to the Supreme Court hearing of April 7, in which the CEC told the court that elections could not be held in 90 days because the Election Commission of Pakistan had to conduct delimitation, which would take time.

He had further told the court that the commission would take a minimum of four months to conduct the delimitation and another 90 days for the general elections. The CEC had informed the court that he personally wrote 16 letters to the then PTI government from May 2020 to 2021, seeking permission to conduct the delimitation but it was interested in carrying out a digital census.