The Nawaz Sharif FIR saga

[MenInG]

Information Minister Shibli Faraz on Wednesday reiterated that the government and Prime Minister Imran Khan did not have anything to do with the FIR against former premier Nawaz Sharif and 40 other PML-N leaders for "conspiring" against the state.

Responding to a question while speaking to the media in Karachi, he said: "We have nothing to do with the incident you are mentioning. Anyone in this country can get up and file an FIR against someone.

"The government is not [involved] in this. It is focused on working for the people and their welfare."

The minister's comments come days after Lahore police registered an FIR against Nawaz , his daughter Maryam Nawaz and other top PML-N leaders for sedition among other charges.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The opposition was quick to blame the government for what it perceived as another attempt at political victimisation. It also emerged that the complainant in the case had a criminal record and is allegedly the ruling PTI's Labour Wing office-bearer.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider was also initially nominated in the case. However, the Punjab government said on Tuesday it had decided to strike off Haider's name from the FIR but would proceed as per the law against the remaining people nominated in the case.

During today's media talk, Faraz said that the purpose of the rallies announced by the opposition under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had one goal: to divert attention away from the corruption of their leaders and to pressurise the government into giving them relief.

"While we have managed to effectively deal with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, our economy has suffered. If an opposition party wants to start such a campaign during the current scenario, then it can't be [a friend of the country]."

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The minister added that opposition parties were the ones responsible for the ruin of state institutions and the economy. "We have been in power for two years. They spent 10 years in government."

When asked about the recent war of words between the Centre and the Sindh government over Islamabad’s move to take over the twin islands of Bundal and Buddo through a presidential ordinance, he replied that the government was only trying to foster economic activity in the area.

"The industries of Sindh and Karachi will benefit from this [and] it will create employment. We are bringing in development and foreign investment to benefit Sindh's people." He added that those who will be affected by the development work will be compensated.

"The government will not do anything that is unconstitutional," he added.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

'Stop distributing certificates of treason'

Shortly after the information minister's media talk, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi lashed out at the government for handing out "certificates of treason".

"How will you fight for the Kashmir cause by declaring two former premiers, a former defence minister and three retired lieutenant generals traitors?"

PML-N leader and former premier addressed a press conference Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. — DawnNewsTV

He also advised the government to focus on solving the problems being faced by the people instead of distributing certificates of patriotism and treason. "That is why the PDM has been formed."

He added that this was the first time the names of former premiers and the AJK prime minister had been included in such a case. He said that the recent revelations made by the former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general were proof the premier wanted the opposition behind bars.

"Have the problems of the people ever been discussed during cabinet meetings? They talk about bringing Nawaz back, increasing drug prices and gas prices but not about solving the people's problems." He added that India was laughing at the way Pakistan was being ridiculed today.

Separately, newly appointed spokesperson for Nawaz and Maryam, Mohammad Zubair accused the prime minister of giving "direct instructions" that cases be filed against the opposition.

While speaking to media in Lahore outside the Shahdara police station, Zubair said: "We are not here to blame the SHO or even Usman Buzdar, because he doesn't even know what's going on in his own office. These are direct instructions from Imran Khan, the selected prime minsiter, that cases be filed.

He thought we would be scared. There are cases against me, against [Ataullah] Tarrar, we are here ourselves, if you want to arrest us, you can."

The former Sindh governor told the government to "compete on political grounds" instead of "stopping down to lowly tactics".

"When [the other side] has no argument left, that's when such cases are filed."

 

[MenInG]

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Wednesday that he will go to Lahore tomorrow and try to register a case against Prime Minister Imran Khan based on the allegations made on TV by former director-general of FIA Bashir Memon.

“I also want to get a case registered. I will go to Lahore tomorrow go to Shahdara; my FIR will be against PM Imran Khan,” the PML-N leader said in a news conference in Islamabad.

Abbasi noted that Memon had alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan told him to register cases against PML-N leader Khawaja Asif under Article 6 of the Constitution. He added that the claims made by the former head of the FIA had proven that PM Imran is obsessed with the opposition.

Talking about the sedition case registered against Nawaz Sharif and other leaders, Abbasi challenged the ministers “distributing certificates of treachery” to becomes witnesses in the case. He also asked where were the ministers that were distributing those certificates when it came time to defend the case.

The PML-N leader further challenged the ministers to come forward and arrest the suspects in the case, asking the government to do an open trial in front of the people of Pakistan. He added that today, India and Modi must be "laughing" at Pakistan.

“What case for Kashmir will you fight when you keep in front of the world that prime minister of Azad Kashmir is an Indian agent,” observed the former prime minister.

Also read: Man behind FIR against Nawaz Sharif found to have criminal record

Hitting back at the government, Abbasi asked the ministers not to distribute “certificates of treachery” and solve the problems of the people. He added that this why the Pakistan Democratic Movement was formed — to resolve the problems of the people.

'Multiple cases were registered against PM Imran during PML-N govt'

Firing back at the opposition, PTI leader Senator Faisal Javed took aim at the criticism that the government was politically victimising the opposition, stating that multiple cases were registered against PM Imran Khan by the PML-N government.

“PML-N inflicted worst political revenge on Imran Khan for raising [his] voice in the Panama [case],” said Javed. He added that the whole of PTI was victim to the worst political revenge.

Also read: Someone related to opposition may have filed FIR against Nawaz Sharif, alleges Faraz

“PTI activists from across the country were abducted by police,” alleged the PTI leader. He added that teargas was fired upon former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak and his cabinet during the 2014 sit-in organised by the PTI.

Sedition case against Nawaz Sharif

The opposition and the government have been involved in a war of words after a sedition case was registered against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, AJK PM Raja Farooq Haider and other leaders.

The case against Nawaz Sharif and the top leadership of PML-N was registered after an FIR was registered against them on Monday for delivering provocative speeches from London “to defame Pakistan’s institutions”.

Lahore's Shahdara police had registered the FIR under sedition laws against Nawaz Sharif on the complaint of a citizen, Badar Rasheed, son of Rasheed Khan, a resident of Mohallah Khurshid Park, Shahdara, under sections 120, 120B, 121, 121A, 123A, 124, 124A, 153, 153A and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 10 of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.

Also read: PML-N accuses govt of pressurising former DG FIA Bashir Memon to probe Sharif family

The complainant claimed that Nawaz Sharif hatched a criminal conspiracy by delivering speeches from London on the electronic and social media on Sept 20, 2020 during the All Parties Conference (APC), and PML-N’s central working committee (CWC) and central executive committee meetings on Oct 1, 2020.

The complainant alleged that the former prime minister, in his speeches, supported the policies of India, and claimed that Nawaz wanted to give an impression that Pakistan would be listed in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) black list in its upcoming meeting.

Source GEO

 

[MenInG]

LAHORE: Despite the federal government’s reservations over the filing of a sedition case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and other PML-N leaders, the Punjab government has formed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the matter.

According to a The News report, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani has formed a four-member JIT, headed by CIA Superintendent of Police Iftikhar Kamboh, to investigate the case. The team has formally launched the inquiry into the matter.

The other members of the team are DSP Shafiqabad Ghiasuddin Sheikh, Incharge CIA Iqbal Town Tariq Kayani and Incharge Shahdra Police Station SI Shabbir Awan.

Read more: Man behind FIR against Nawaz Sharif found to have criminal record

All the nominated PML-N leaders will be included in the investigation, the publication said, adding, “the CCPO will give a strategy to the JIT for the arrest of the accused”.

The opposition parties have slammed the move and termed it as an attempt by the PTI government to thwart the campaign launched jointly by them under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement.

PM Imran unhappy
Prime Minister Imran Khan had also expressed displeasure over the development.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, in a tweet, had said that PM Imran was unaware that such a case had been filed against the PML-N supremo, and that maybe someone wanted to implicate him in a case.

Read more: Maryam asks PML-N leaders to gear up for anti-govt campaign

“Prime Minister Imran Khan was unaware of any such [first information report] FIR, when I informed him about it, he expressed extreme displeasure,” Fawad Chaudhry said in response to journalist Hamid Mir who had shared the copy of the FIR.

"Filing treason cases is not our [PTI government's] policy. These were the tactics [used during] Nawaz Sharif's tenure," he said.

Nawaz Sharif booked for sedition
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was named in the FIR for delivering provocative speeches from London “to defame Pakistan’s institutions”.

The Shahdara police registered the FIR on October 1 under the sedition laws against Nawaz Sharif on the complaint of a citizen, Badar Rasheed, son of Rasheed Khan, a resident of Mohallah Khurshid Park, Shahdara, under sections 120, 120B, 121, 121A, 123A, 124, 124A, 153, 153A and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 10 of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.

The complainant claimed that Nawaz hatched a criminal conspiracy by delivering speeches from London on the electronic and social media on Sept 20, 2020 during the All Parties Conference (APC), and PML-N’s central working committee (CWC) and central executive committee meetings on Oct 1, 2020.

The complainant alleged that the former prime minister, in his speeches, supported the policies of India, and claimed that Nawaz wanted to give an impression that Pakistan would be listed in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) black list in its upcoming meeting.

The citizen, in the FIR, claimed that Nawaz, in his speeches, wanted to divert the attention of people across the world from Indian forces’ atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and India’s occupation of the territory.

“Nawaz Sharif’s speech was aimed to indirectly benefit his friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” stated the FIR. It also alleged that the former prime minister’s speeches defamed Pakistan’s high courts and armed forces in front of the international community.

Besides Nawaz Sharif, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan and three retired generals are among 40 PML-N leaders nominated in the FIR.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/312493-jit-to-probe-sedition-case-against-nawaz-aides

 

[MenInG]

LAHORE: The police on Saturday declared all senior PML-N leadership innocent, except for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in a sedition case lodged with the Shahdara police recently and also removed four sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) from the FIR.

The development came late on Saturday after a meeting held between the special investigation team probing into the case and Lahore’s Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh.

The sedition case was registered against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and senior PML-N leadership, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, on Monday.

The federal government distanced itself from the move as Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his displeasure over the development.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

Besides Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam, 41 other senior leaders of the party were nominated in the case on the complaint of local resident and PTI activist Badar Rasheed.

Four sections of PPC also removed from FIR

The complainant alleged that the former premier delivered “hateful speeches” against the state, its institutions and the nation while addressing the opposition’s multiparty conference and his party’s Central Working Committee and Central Executive Committee on Sept 20 and Oct 1.

He said the party leaders who were attending these meetings endorsed speeches of Mr Sharif by raising hands.

He said the purpose of calling these meetings and the speeches of Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N leaders was to endorse the policy of India aimed to get Pakistan declared ‘a rogue state’ and to keep its name on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The FIR was registered under section 10 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (2016) and sections 124-A (sedition), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against Pakistan), 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) 120-A (criminal conspiracy), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 123-A (condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishing of its sovereignty), 124 (assaulting President, Governor, etc., with intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the PPC. According to the FIR, Mr Sharif instigated his party leaders, state institutions and the nation to treason against Pakistan while using the media from abroad (London).

The late-night statement issued by the police chief said the special investigation team had thoroughly investigated the case and found all the politicians, including the Azad Kashmir PM, “innocent”.

It said the team recorded written and video statements of the complainant and reached the conclusion that the politicians nominated in the treason case had not endorsed the hateful speeches of Mr Sharif at the two meetings of the party.

Consequently, the police have decided not to take action against them (nominated politicians), except Mr Sharif.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

The police further stated that in the light of the investigation, four sections of the PPC — 121-A, 123-A, 124 and 153-A — had been removed from the FIR.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020