ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign allegedly for exerting pressure on former director general (DG) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to file a terrorism case against PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her social media cell after a picture of the first lady was circulated on the social media.
Speaking at a news conference, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan had summoned Bashir Memon, the former DG FIA, and exerted pressure on him to file terrorism cases against members of the Sharif family.
In an interview, Memon had claimed that he was summoned to the “highest office” days before he had to retire in protest and was asked to file terrorism cases against Maryam and the PML-N social media cell, when a picture of the first lady went viral on the social media.
“Imran Khan summoned the former DG FIA to his office and asked him that he didn’t file any case against Sharif family. He was asked that he has to file cases against Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif, Capt Safdar, Hamza Shahbaz and Salman Shahbaz. He [Memon] was told that first of all he has to file a terrorism case against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam and Capt Safdar,” the PML-N spokesperson claimed.
She claimed that the former DG FIA was also told to file a corruption case against Shahbaz and his wife, “but he refused, saying no such case can be made”.
Third, she claimed that Memon was asked to register a case against Khawaja Asif under Article 6.
“This is Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is asking the then DG FIA,” she further claimed. “I salute, Bashir Memon, who refused to take the dictation,” she said. She alleged that Memon also claimed that “what the NAB is doing today, he was asked to do”. “When he [PM Khan] failed to get Memon to act on his directives, then the “NAB-Niazi nexus” started,” she alleged.
“Bashir Memon also said in his interview that everything that is happening currently [in the NAB], he was told to do,” she stated, adding that the interview had also raised a question mark on role of the NAB chairman.
The PML-N spokesperson maintained that the sedition case registered against former premier Nawaz Sharif was not a sedition case. “But it is tale of the misuse of the State’s authority, the misuse of the law and the lies. This is how the State institutions are being misused.”
“After the revelations of Bashir Memon, we have three demands; (i) Imran Khan should resign and (ii) a case under Article 6 be filed against him, and (iii) Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz should be released immediately as there is no justification for keeping them in jail after this interview,” she said, adding that the allegations leveled by Memon also needed to be answered.
To a question, she said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had announced the schedule of its countrywide rallies. “The rental spokespersons should pack their belongings because they are going back home after four months. Imran Sahib! Pack up your belongings, as the countdown has started because it is time to go home,” she maintained.
She also criticized the government, saying that the federal cabinet instead of discussing the skyrocketing price hike, inflation, high gas and power tariffs, are discussing how to file more cases against the opponents they are talking [about] Bashir Memon’s interview, there are discussions about Badar Rashid, and dropping of electricity and gas bombs,” she further maintained.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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