Won’t allow Islamabad march till assured it won’t be violent: Sana tells PTI

LAHORE: Responding to Awami Muslim League (AML) leader Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed who said the long march on Islamabad might turn violent, Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan said on Saturday that he would not allow the protest if the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) did not assure the government that it’d remain peaceful.

Speaking to the media after appearing in a court here in connection with the hearing of a narcotics case against him, Khan told Ahmed “in clear and categorical terms” that he “did not know” the former.

“You will fail to create anarchy in the country. Mind it. This is my last warning to you,” Sanaullah said, and added, “Imran Khan, I am telling you. Even you will not be spared if you do not refrain from threatening us.”

The minister said that since this was the election year, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had already begun a mass contact campaign.

He was of the view that Usman Buzdar was the Punjab chief minister only in name, and in fact, it was Farah Khan, friend of former prime minister Imran Khan’s spouse who called the shots in the province.

He accused Farah of minting billions through the transfers and postings of civil servants. “PTI chairman Imran and his party leaders are presently running ‘Save Gogi campaign’,” Sanaullah said, and alleged that the former prime minister had introduced the amnesty scheme only to save Farah.

He claimed that Farah transferred Rs1 billion abroad.

“The PTI government booked its opponents in false and fabricated cases. If the last government had proofs that I was involved in the murder of some people, I should have been booked in cases of that particular offence rather than cases of drugs, with which I have nothing to do,” he added.

In his conversation, the minister criticised the former prime minister for “inciting” and “misleading” the public against the government.

The PTI chairman, in his address at the party’s Mianwali rally on Friday, had told his workers that neither containers placed on the route could stop them from their march on Islamabad nor could the interior minister.

He had also accused Khan of committing 18 murders.

Responding to the speech, the minister warned Imran that if he didn’t mend his ways, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) too would instruct its workers to “catch and beat them up”.

“This is your misconception that you will be able to cause anarchy or chaos in the country. Nothing will happen,” he told Imran. “They [the supporters] will become human beings after a few thrashings.”

Earlier, the court of Special Judge Anti-Narcotics issued a notice to the ANF and later adjourned the hearing of the case of possession of 15 kilogrammes of heroin against Khan until May 21.

Khan, on the occasion, also filed an application for permanent exemption from appearance in the case.

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