Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry has said that the party is going to challenge the ATC’s decision that Imran Khan be tried under terrorism laws charges, in the high court.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Chaudhry said that cases of storming the state-run media house during the 2014 sit-in did not qualify as terrorism cases. He said the decision of an anti-terrorism court to try Imran Khan under anti-terrorism laws was ‘illegal’. He added that 300 people would challenge the decision before a high court.
Citing ‘dual standards’ in the country, he said that the Sharif family seemed to appear before the courts ‘as per a schedule of their own will’. He further complained that Ishaq Dar was still the finance minister of the country and the prime minister had been unable to send him packing. ‘Practically a proclaimed offender is a minister of our country’, he remarked.
Accusing Dar of illegally recruiting “incompatible officials” in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), he also expressed concerns regarding the prosecutor general appointed by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
“NAB lawyers should be appointed on merit and through a crystal clear procedure,” the PTI spokesman said. Speaking on the Hudaibiya case, Chaudhry wondered why a NAB prosecutor had told the court that Nawaz Sharif was forced into exile. “Doesn’t he know that Nawaz Sharif had left the country after reaching an agreement with the dictator (Pervez Musharraf),” he asked.
Chaudhary further said that the all pieces of evidence against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been submitted to the accountability court so a decision should be announced on the NAB references by the commencement of the next year.
Meanwhile, senior counsel Dr Babar Awan called on PTI Chief Imran Khan to discuss various political, legal and constitutional matters.
The PTI chief was reported to have directed Awan to approach a high court against the decision of the ATC to pursue the PTV station storming case under terrorism laws.
Speaking on the occasion, Khan also vowed to merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “at any cost.”
Terming the government’s failure to implement the FATA package “a violation of the Constitution,” Khan said early elections were the only way to avoid political and economic crises.
