PTI demands inquiry into ‘baseless allegations’

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday demanded the government constitute another inquiry commission, this time to investigate a federal minister’s allegation that the party’s marathon sit-in in Islamabad last year was part of a conspiracy to topple the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

“The PTI has had enough of these shenanigans,” the party chief’s spokesperson, Dr Shireen Mazari, said in a statement. “We demand that a commission be set up to probe into these allegations.”

She said if anyone was found guilty of such a conspiracy, then they should be punished. “And if those making the accusations are exposed as liars, then they need to be removed from office and politics.”

Dr Mazari said the PTI was “fed up with such dangerous and debilitating games that the PML-N is playing, especially at a time when the military is involved in successful operations against terrorism”.

PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan, who has resigned as climate change minister, claimed on Friday in an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation that former ISI chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi had hatched a conspiracy to remove the present government.

Dr Mazari said that although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had contradicted Mushahid’s claim, “the game of accusations about the sit-in being part of an ISI conspiracy followed by weak contradictions was becoming absurd”.

She said the sit-in was the last resort of seeking justice against “rigging in the 2013 general elections”. “The PTI was forced to come out on the streets through a peaceful sit-in. Why would any of this be of interest to the military, including the ISI?”

Dr Mazari warned that it was time for ‘these malicious games’ to end, especially because “the media has had a field day in conjecturing wild plots and conspiracy theories fanned by irresponsible and baseless accusations hurled by [govt] ministers”.

Unfortunately, she added, in this “game of political mud-slinging, the institution of the military has also become fair game. This has to end now through an inquiry into the whole affair”.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Asad Umar called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a clear stand. “He cannot continue this good cop, bad cop drama.”

“If the DG ISI was actually involved, then he and his accomplices – civil or military – should be tried for treason,” Umar posted on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

He said if the premier agreed with his ministers, then he should order action against those involved in the conspiracy. “If he thinks his ministers are lying, then he has to order action against them.”


Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2015.