PTI's Raoof Hasan rounded up in Islamabad raid

Govt announces JIT for party’s digital content scrutiny

ISLAMABAD:

The state unleashed its full might against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday, with the interior minister announcing the arrest of PTI’s information secretary.

The minister accused PTI of engaging in “anti-state propaganda” and revealed that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is being set up to scrutinise the party’s digital content, among other issues.

However, PTI leaders dismissed the arrest as a mere smokescreen, claiming that the police raid not only apprehended Information Secretary Raoof Hasan but also seized critical affidavits from PTI MNAs and MPAs.

These affidavits, submitted to comply with a Supreme Court directive, were meant to verify party affiliations concerning reserved seats.

The development is particularly alarming, as the apex court had ordered independent lawmakers to submit these affidavits within 15 days. If the lawmakers who joined PTI are recognised, it could transform the National Assembly’s dynamics, elevating PTI to the largest party and undermining the ruling coalition’s two-thirds majority.

Apart from confirming Hasan’s arrest, the interior ministry statement confirmed that PTI’s international media coordinator, Ahmed Waqas Janjua, has also been booked.

Janjua was detained in a raid on Saturday.

The statement added that the Islamabad police and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) conducted a raid on the PTI’s digital media wing in light of the preliminary investigation and digital content.

“Raoof Hasan was arrested during the raid. PTI is involved in anti-state propaganda,” the ministry statement read, adding that “a joint investigation team was being constituted”.

Hasan has been on the forefront for PTI when it started falling like a house of cards in the wake of May 9 events. He held his ground when everyone else was leaving the party by holding press conferences.

The statement came on the heels of a press conference by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif, who said “digital terrorists” were using tools such as cell phones, computers, falsehood and propaganda to impose their will on society just like regular terrorists do.

Recently, the political temperature increased in the country just after the Supreme Court declared that PTI is a political party and entitled to the reserved seats; the government not only challenged the decision but announced that PTI will be banned, high treason proceedings will be initiated against ex-PM Imran and others; and strict action will be taken against all those involved in targeting Pakistan from here and abroad.

Though PTI has been on the receiving end since the May 9 attacks on civil and military instalments, the latest round of state action started on Monday morning when the Islamabad police arrested Hasan and confiscated different kinds of material from the party’s secretariat.

Initially, it emerged that PTI chairman Barrister Gohar was also arrested but he later on said that he only went along with Hasan following his arrest as he was not feeling well.

The PTI chairman while talking to media at KPK House said that the party’s central office was raided before 12 o’clock and footage was taken from all the cameras in the office, adding that “affidavits of our MNAs and MPAs of KPK and Punjab were present and the police confiscated all those affidavits.”

Gohar said that PTI was being targeted after the Supreme Court verdict as party lawmakers are simultaneously being threatened and lured.

In response to PTI’s allegations that the police raided the central secretariat without a warrant and confiscated valuable items, including computers, the police said that the raid was conducted by FIA and police with a warrant obtained from an anti-terrorism court.

PTI secretary general and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan seconded Gohar by saying that “the raid was a mere excuse as the actual target was to obtain the affidavits of the party lawmakers”. The opposition leader alleged that the government and agencies could not “digest” the apex court’s verdict in the reserved seats case and, thus, the action against PTI.

Former Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser said that the PTI legislators were being given three types of offers: take as much money as they want; take a portfolio; and if they turned down both the offers, be ready for anti-corruption, NAB and other such things.

 

Qaiser urged the prime minister against crossing the limits, vowing to fight back with double strength. “You start the war, we will finish it,” he said.

He urged lawyers, students and other segments of the society to support PTI on coming Friday by coming out of their homes for its planned protest rallies across the country.