Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties as well as government allies have started ignoring the Panama leaks issue and paying more attention to the “move on movement”.

Opposition leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah described the banners inviting Army Chief Raheel Sharif to take over as a bigger threat than the Panama leaks. He criticised the Kashmir Committee for its silence on the aggression of the Indian Army in occupied Kashmir and demanded more meetings on the Kashmir issue.

Likewise, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman called the banners inviting the army chief to take over as a violation of the constitution and demanded immediate action against those who displayed the banners. He said it was government’s duty to highlight the Kashmir issue at the international level, and absolved the Kashmir Committee of all accusations.

Talking to the media outside the Parliament House, Shah said the banners displayed in support of the army chief across the country were more dangerous than the Panama leaks because inviting the army to stage a coup was a violation of the constitution. He said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who called himself a lion, did not arrest the people who put these banners on display. He said this inaction gave the impression that the Interior Ministry was also with those who put these banners on display. He said that action must be taken under Article 6 against those who did not arrest the people who violated the constitution. He said that remarks of Senator Aitzaz Ahsan about the prevailing situation proved true. He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had shifted his capital from Islamabad to Lahore and he was making decisions from there. He said the government wanted to snatch it instead of contesting the election in Kashmir. He said the government was afraid of the popularity of the Pakistan People’s Party; therefore, it resorted to bizarre tactics. After the incident of firing on PPP Azad Kashmir leader Faisal Rathore on Wednesday, he said, the inspector general of Islamabad Police refused to register an FIR against the accused. He said the Islamabad Police chief had become a controversial official now; therefore, the prime minister should take action against him and transfer him immediately.

The government would be responsible if anything happened to workers or leaders of the PPP Azad Kashmir, Shah warned. He said the government could not fully highlight the Kashmir issue at the international level. He said the government could have called the Indian ambassador and recorded a strong protest against the Indian aggression in occupied Kashmir.

Talking to the media outside the Parliament House, the JUI-F chief said he strongly condemned the Indian aggression in occupied Kashmir. He said it was not Kashmiris versus India; Pakistan as well as the entire Muslim world was concerned about Kashmir. He said the Kashmir Committee was doing its job in a good manner. He said that he called a meeting of the committee on July 20 and invited members of the National Assembly and the Senate to the meeting so that the Kashmir issue could be highlighted.