Media session: ‘Only a fool would come to Pakistan after such statements’

Punjab Law Minist­er Rana Sanaul­lah demand­s CEC to step down for ‘not honour­ing’ his word to the SC.

LAHORE:

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, speaking to reporters outside the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, criticised the government for ‘scaring’ Memogate protagonist Mansoor Ijaz into not coming to Pakistan in order to thwart the case.

“After the sort of threatening statement the government made, only a fool will come to Pakistan to record evidence,” Sanaullah said. “The government has been making such comments because it knows that it will be implicated in the case if Ijaz comes to Pakistan with proof.”

He also demanded the resignation of Justice (retired) Hamid Ali Mirza, the chief election commissioner, who called the Supreme Court’s by-poll freeze ‘against the Constitution’.

Sanaullah said that Mirza should resign because of his age and his failure to compile voters’ lists by December 2011. “It is my humble suggestion to Mirza that he resign,” Sanaullah said.

The law minister said that being the head of a federal government department, he (Mirza) should not have made such statements. Mirza should have told the nation why the voters’ lists have not yet been prepared, Sanaullah said.

When asked about Asghar Khan’s petition before the Supreme Court seeking punishment for political groups that have been funded by the Inter-Services Intelligence, Sanaullah said that the PML-N had nothing to worry about since it had a clear record.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2012.