ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday hit back after the military vowed to punish the perpetrators and facilitators of May 9 violence, with the party spokesman insisting that the presser by DG ISPR was “full of contradictions, devoid and rationale”.
Speaking at a presser, PTI central information secretary Raoof Hasan following a presser by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif, said that it reflected “a mind full of contradictions as at the end of it all I could not understand anything”.
Hasan continued that he could not understand “why there is such frustration and what are the factors that propel them again and again to give such statements which have no rationale or logic”.
Hasan noted that the “most humorous” part of the DG ISPR’s presser was that there was “no danger to democracy”, adding that “danger is present to that which is present.”
“What threat can there be to something that is not even present,” he added.
Hasan claimed that multiple attempts were made to target PTI, but with the passage of time, their frustration increased, adding there has been an increase in the intensity and venom targeting the PTI.
He said that he usually avoided material “devoid of substance or meaning” but the presser he heard contained the kind of “venom which is not appropriate for state, society and the relationship with institutions”.
In an obvious reference to Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir, the PTI spokesman said that there was a “one-person diktat and dictatorship present on whose basis the country is being run and it will unravel soon, it cannot persist for long.”
Addressing the points raised by the DG ISPR, Hasan said: “We challenge them on all the things he said to bring evidence for it before the nation and the easiest way for that […] is to institute an independent transparent judicial inquiry” to determine the culprits and planners of the events on May 9.
“They say that they are ready to make such a judicial commission, but the judicial commission will talk about the 2014 sit-in, it would also talk about the attack on the Parliament, etc and we agree to it,” he said.
However, he said that the commission should also probe the cypher case, the PTI government’s ouster, the assassination attempt on Imran Khan, audio leaks, and the alleged rigging in the February 8 elections.
“These are all the things that we have demanded and if DG ISPR wants to form a judicial commission with two of his conditions then we would support them as there is no other way to ascertain who committed the crimes and why and who was supporting them,” he said, saying that the PTI was not involved in the events.
Hasan said the commission should be independent and not “subservient to the military”.
To a claim by DG ISPR who said that only seven percent people voted for PTI, Hasan dared DG ISPR: “Tell the political parties who you think are enjoying popularity to gather a crowd of only 2,000 and we will show by organising a crowd of 20 million people within no time, which will settle the controversy who the people stand by”.
He maintained that the military must produce the video evidence of the May 9 riots and the one where Imran Khan was kidnapped from the premises of IHC, adding when they want to bury a crime under the carpet, they simply remove the video evidence.
“You [the DG ISPR] dubbed PTI a terrorist party. Do you think the people start believing you blindly? You cannot term a party a terrorist organisation through mere allegations. The nation must be told whether the PTI is the enemy of the country or the ones who blame it. There is rampant corruption in the country… when that glorious day will come when the NAB chairman will wake up from the deep slumber, “he regretted.
Hasan further said that the people behind the closure of X, those who hijacked the elections and unleashed a reign of terror for the past two years, are responsible for spreading chaos and anarchy in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, the lawyer for PTI founding chairman Imran Khan, Naeem Haider Panjutha said that if the military has any evidence of PTI’s involvement in the May 9 mayhem, it must bring it to the fore.
He insisted that the CCTV footages of May 9 mayhem and those of Imran Khan’s kidnapping from the IHC premises were stolen, and those who stole the important video evidence are the ones who orchestrated the May 09 false flag operation. He said that whether it is the CCTV footages of Islamabad High Court (IHC) or the Corps Commander Lahore residence, all the documentary proofs were stolen, and who could dare stealing such evidence from these highly sensitive and secure places.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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