Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that Pakistan respects its obligations on human rights, criticising Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan for “disinforming local and foreign audiences” on the matter.
In a tweet, he said that “in his interviews with international media outlets, Imran Niazi is openly and deliberately disinforming local and foreign audiences by glib talk laced with fake news and plain misrepresentation.”
“His expedient description of the post-May 9 events as human rights abuses and stifling of the right to political protest is not only misleading but aimed at manipulating and swaying opinion-makers outside the country.”
What his party did on May 9 was a brazen attack on the state of Pakistan, with malafide intent and sinister objectives, the PM said.
He added that no country in the world would tolerate such an attempt at destroying its integrity.
“I assure everyone that the culprits are being dealt with under the law and that I will ensure that no rights violations take place. Every case will be dealt with due process under the law,” he said.
The PM’s comments come after Imran Khan gave an interview to Reuters in which he said that he had “no doubt” he would be tried in a military court and thrown in jail.
Khan has hinted multiple times at the military’s hand in a crackdown on his party but his comments in an interview at his Lahore home on Saturday night were the most blunt yet.
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“It is completely the establishment,” the former cricket hero told Reuters, when asked who was behind the crackdown. “Establishment obviously means the military establishment, because they are really now openly - I mean, it’s not even hidden now - they’re just out in the open.”
Khan termed the violent protests, which erupted after he was briefly arrested, a “false flag operation” meant to target him.
On May 9, protests erupted throughout Pakistan following Imran’s arrest by the National Accountability Bureau in Al-Qadir Trust case. The protests soon turned into violence and PTI supporters attacked state institutions and set buildings on fire.
Subsequently, the government decided to hold trials of the miscreants in military courts.
Earlier, it was reported that the government had decided to dispatch small delegations of Cabinet members and parliamentarians abroad to allay concerns of foreign governments on human rights violation as well as interact with the diaspora to sensitize on the gravity of offences committed on May 9.