ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab president and ex-interior minister Rana Sanaullah on Sunday lashed out at former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) jailed chairman allegedly for hiring a UK-based lawyer to represent him in international courts and termed the move as an effort to defame Pakistan.

In a statement, the former interior minister stated that approaching the International Court of Justice ‘means making Pakistan stand in the global dock as a criminal’. “Only enemies of Pakistan can do this despicable act,” he maintained.

Earlier on September 1, the PTI announced through a post on X, saying: “PTI chairman and former PM Imran Khan has appointed the eminent human rights Barrister Geoffrey Robertson KC of Doughty Street Chambers to advise and represent him in international courts in relation to unlawful detention and human rights abuses.”

However, when the move was criticized by rival political parties, the decision was taken back and the post from the official handle of PTI on X deleted and a spokesperson of the PTI announced through a statement that no decision has been taken to hire services of a foreign lawyer or to approach the international courts against Khan’s cases. “The ‘blue-eyed’ of the judicial system needs not to go abroad. Who is spending money on Imran Niazi? Those he works for are trying to save him.

First, they made him a hero, gave him foreign funding and brought him to power after which Pakistan’s economy and foreign relations were destroyed,” Rana Sanaullah further maintained in the statement.

He further said that the path to civil war was paved through inflation whereas the minds of the youth were filled with ‘gunpowder’ so that they could attack when and where they wanted. He added that occupants of Palestine and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were jubilant when they found out that Pakistan would be taken to international court.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023