Probe into the May 25th incidents: Punjab-Centre tensions likely to hit a new low

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry has announced that a joint investigation team (JIT) is being established to investigate the 25th May 2022 incidents and hoped that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and other would appear before the Punjab Police.

While addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Fawad Chaudhry stated that dozens of applications were being received regarding 25th May harassment, violence following its announcement of long March, and decided to club all of them and create a joint investigation team.

He added that applications were being received against former Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, (PML-N) leaders Atta Tarar, Ahmed Malik. He said that they have to appear before the Punjab Police for free and fair investigation and cooperate with the police as federal government expects PTI leaders to appear before the FIA for investigation.

Former Minister for Information stated that the children and women were harassed and people were arrested and tortured on May 25 2022. Punjab government would also swiftly move on Model Town incident and PTI hopes that federal government would cooperate in terms of investigation in this regard.

The Minister also challenged Election Commission about 13 accounts which were reported in ECP decision as undeclared and stated that these accounts were declared on 23-10-2019.

He added that international funding came into main account of the party and from where it was transferred to the provincial accounts involving Rs 2 crore for offices’ operational expenses, mainly related to salary and other expenses, for 2013 elections to be managed by Arif Alvi, Asad Qaiser, Qasim Suri and others. He said in 2012 this amount was transferred to various offices of PTI in Lahore, Karachi, KP and Baluchistan for 2013 general election.

He also advised that Minister for Interior must talk some sense when he speaks about the PTI leaders, especially of former speaker National Assembly, Governor Sindh and others and reminded him that these people were not holding any public office in 2012 and wondered how FIA can issue notices to them. However, he said that as party we will cooperate with FIA if court directed so.

Fawad Chaudhry also censored Election Commission of Pakistan partiality and stated that first it declared 115,000 voters as dead and now declared them as alive, which simply indicate how partial the ECP has become which is headed by incompetent people. He said that his party would also file an application in the court on Wednesday seeking an order to ECP to declare the funding cases of other political parties in 15 days.

He said that PML-N accounts were unaudited and were signed by the Ishaq Dar personal employees and more surprisingly source of funds are not available. He said that source of fund Rs 14 crore 50 lac in 2013, Rs 8 crore 67 lac in 2014 Rs 1 crore 17 lac in 2015 in the central secretariat of the party are not available. He said that PML-N had declared that there was no contribution to the party by the members of the party while it stated that Rs 1.3 billion was spent on media campaign during 2013 election. He said that a foreign company was also registered by the party in London for funding and alleged that the party’s accounts were also used for money laundering and ECP decision is awaited in this regard.

He said that the People’s Party (PPP) in two parts with one as PPP led by Bilawal Bhutto and other Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) led by Asif Ali Zardari. He said that the response of the PPP was it was being funded by the parliamentarians and now under the law one political party cannot fund another political party. He said that opening fund of the PPP in 2011 was Rs 41 crore 47 lac but the source of opening account was not disclosed and the money is not audited.

Similarly, party leader’s certificate is not available and general secretary was asked to submit certificate whereas under the law party leader is required to submit certificate. He said that PPP has shown its expenses over Rs 2 and half crore in 2013 over Rs 3 and half core in 2014 over 3 and half crore in 2015 but did not proved any details where the money was spent, which is violation of law.

He further stated that in 2013 PPP shown expense of Rs 232 million but the election was contested PPP-P while miscellaneous disbursement of the account is over Rs 51 crore. He added that PPP had got LLC registered in the US and collected funds from the US whose record is not available in Pakistan because it was managed by Hussian Haqani in Pakistan Embassy in US and money went in Asif Ali Zardari’s account and not party’s account.

He said although the ruling parties are fearful of going in general elections because of fear that PTI would wind two-third majority, PTI has finalized its strategy to force the government for general election. He said that ECP is protecting PPP, PML-N, and JUI-F accounts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022