LAHORE: Federal Law Minister Dr Babar Awan has alleged that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was earlier befooling the nation and now he is making Sanaullah Mastikhel the scapegoat.
“He should bring forth the actual culprit who has done all this (orchestrated the plan to get an anti-media resolution passed by the Punjab Assembly),” he demanded while talking to reporters at the Lahore airport.
He said the people who have been predicting a clash among federal institutions should also talk about the people clashing with the freedom of expression.
He said the Punjab chief minister himself announced in the Punjab Assembly that the resolution was passed and “now he is trying to distance himself from it”.
He said it was a truly non-parliamentary act as parliaments do not pass resolutions against any institution.
He said Nawaz Sharif should disclose the actual persons who moved the resolution and should not present Mastikhel as a scapegoat. He said there was no concept in democracy of putting curbs on the media.
He alleged that an absconder from Sindh was given employment in Punjab and later he was also granted pre-arrest bail, so he could never be arrested.
Babar Awan said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was judicially murdered and Benazir Bhutto was disqualified politically for 21 years. President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have been prisoners of conscience but they were never afraid of facing the courts.
He charged that by providing protection to a person absconding from an accountability institution, the PML-N wanted to create a conflict between the federal institutions.
He demanded that the absconder from Sindh should be given an opportunity to appear in the court. “If such cases can be transferred to other courts, then the cases of President Zardari and his father should also be transferred to other courts,” he added.
He said that Farooq Sattar and Azam Hoti were tried in Punjab and they faced the courts. The leadership and the workers of PPP are also facing their cases.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2010.
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