Daily Times

Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said Sunday that if he was summoned for a probe regarding the sedition FIR registered against him and other PML-N leaders, he will appear for the investigation in handcuffs.

“I was hurt when I got to know about the [sedition] FIR,” he said, speaking to a private TV channel. “If three-fourths of the PDM’s representatives are Modi’s agents, then a question is raised on Pakistan’s existence,” he maintained.

Haider said that he had not asked anyone to exclude his name from the FIR, adding that the development was ‘unfortunate’. “If I am summoned for the [sedition] probe, will arrive in my government car with handcuffs on,” he said.

Saying that he would live and die in Pakistan, the AJK prime minister said that Pakistan is where his future lays. He said that his spirits will not be lowered, adding that his affiliation with the country will further strengthen. He said that it is not possible for a common man to have included such provisions in the sedition FIR. “They didn’t even have the courtesy to apologise to me over a telephone call,” he said.

Haider said that the prime minister of Pakistan, regardless of whoever assumed the mantle, was respectable in the eyes of the AJK government. However, he said that when the prime minister himself says that Modi is behind the opposition, then such FIRs are registered. “This FIR is evidence of moral bankruptcy and enmity against the state,” he said. “Even the Mader-e-Millat (Mother of the Nation) was declared a traitor. Developments such as these weaken a nation,” he added.

Talking about last month’s All Parties Conference (APC), the AJK prime minister said that discussions were held only on how to ensure Pakistan functioned according to law. Haider said that he had not decided yet about participating directly in the PDM’s movement against the government. “The government of Pakistan has not taken steps according to the people’s expectations after Modi’s August 5 move,” he said.

Earlier this week, police had clarified that the case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for delivering provocative speeches from London ‘to defame Pakistan’s institutions’ was not filed on behalf of the state. In a statement, a spokesperson of Lahore police had said that a first information report (FIR) against the former premier and other senior PML-N leaders including Azad Kashmir’s PM Raja Farooq Haider was lodged on the complaint of a citizen. The clarification from the police came after PM Imran’s ‘extreme disappointment’ over the development and strong reaction from the opposition parties.