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Citizen wants treason case against railways minister, other top leaders of PML-N
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Minister already named in FIR of Model Town incident
LAHORE: The incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government that is already in hot waters since the past few months, faced yet another blow on Saturday when a citizen submitted an application with the police for registration of a treason case against the top leadership of PML-N, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday.
According to details, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) Armaan Welfare Foundation President Amna Malik moved an application, a copy of which is also available with Pakistan Today, with the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore demanding the registration of a treason case against the aforementioned personalities. “The recent interview of Saad Rafique in which he targeted a national institution is equivalent to treason and Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Rana Sanaullah are also part of this conspiracy,” the application said.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Amna Malik said that it was the duty of every citizen under Article 5 of the Constitution of Pakistan to be loyal with the state, but the statements of Khawaja Saad Rafique were in clear violation of this article. Therefore, the case of treason must be initiated against him along with the PML-N leadership who were also a part of this conspiracy, she added.
“Earlier, we also moved a similar application against Altaf Hussain and he has now been declared an absconder by the court,” she said, while adding that their application had helped a lot in bringing peace to Karachi.
She said that she did not move the application on the directions of someone, but chose to do so in the capacity of a concerned citizen. She further said that her NGO first approached the front desk established in Civil Lines police station, but the police officials deputed there refused to take their application by simply saying that they have clear instructions from the high-ups not to register any application against the ministers and powerful people.
We then approached the CCPO office to file our application but his office also refused to initiate any case against them, she said. Now we would be approaching the sessions judge of Lahore on Monday under Sections 22-A and 22-B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to register a first information report against Saad Rafique and others.
It is worth mentioning here that Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor had termed the statement of Saad Rafique irresponsible and unwarranted, while saying that through his statements, the minister had tried to target the chain of command of the army.
In a seminar that was arranged on the death anniversary of veteran politician Khawaja Muhammad Rafique (father of Saad Rafique) on December 24, the Railways minister had said that the army chief had shown his strong commitment towards democracy during his visit to the Senate, therefore all those who served directly under him should also follow his resolve to protect democracy in Pakistan.
It is pertinent to mention here that Saad Rafique was also named in the first information report of the Model Town incident in which 14 people were killed while over a 100 got injured.