Declaring anyone a 'traitor' dangerous for country: Dawar

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader and Member of National Assembly (MNA), Mohsin Dawar has said that trend of declaring anyone a traitor should be stopped and termed this trend dangerous for the country.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Thursday, he asked: who is running the affairs of the country? The "project of traitor" is very dangerous for the country. The country cannot be run in such way. "We are being labeled as traitors. Similar charges were leveled against people like Bacha Khan, Wali Khan, Asfandyar Wali Khan, GM Syed, Fatima Jinnah and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto," he added.

Dawar said, "The allegations of being traitors were not proved against aforementioned leaders but the charge of being traitor was proved against Gen Pervez Musharraf, who violated the Constitution and termed it a piece of paper."

He said, "When he [Musharraf] was convicted by Special Court, a spokesman for an institution criticized and questioned the conviction. It means the institution owns the actions of Musharraf. This is a dangerous thing."

Dawar and 28 others were arrested from outside Islamabad's National Press Club on Tuesday where they had gathered to stage a protest against the arrest of PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen.

Dawar said, "The project of declaring anyone in the country a traitor should be stopped. Otherwise, time will come when the whole nation, except a few government officers, will be declared traitor."

He said that Manzoor Pashteen was arrested on January 27, two days after Defense Minister Pervez Khattak offered to hold a dialogue with group.

Dawar said he was among the 29 people who were arrested from outside the press club while protesting Pashteen's arrest. "The policemen who dragged me and put me in the vehicle were raising slogans of 'Islam Zindabad' and 'Death to India'."

"What kind of mindset is being developed? We were very good Muslims when we were being used in the Afghan jihad," he said.

He said that in the past, PTI had attacked the Parliament House and the PTV offices and even Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi were facing terrorism charges. "We have not damaged even a single plant during our movement," he said while referring to the PTM protest.

Responding to Dawar, Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed claimed that PTM leaders had in recent speeches abused the Parliament and parliamentarians. He demanded the PTM leaders in the house apologize for the alleged speech before discussing the issues of tribal areas.

The minister alleged that the PTM leaders had also opposed the fencing of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which, he said, is crucial to stop the flow of terrorists from Afghanistan into the country.

The minister also questioned why Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan parliament "start issuing statements in favour" of the PTM whenever an incident takes place in Pakistan.