Daily Times

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Wednesday criticised the PTI’s Azadi March and said even the government bought Imran Khan’s ‘lies’ of leading a march of two million people towards Islamabad.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, he said Imran was leading around five to six thousand people contrary to his claim of holding the biggest ever gathering in Pakistan. He said the government should not have made preparations on such a big scale if it had known that the march will only have a few attendees. “We stopped the metro operations, postponed examinations due to which people faced trouble commuting, and the patients faced issues as well,” he added. Sanaullah apologized to the people on behalf of the government for troubling them and maintained that the PTI portrayed a picture of a huge crowd marching towards the capital. “Only people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the march,” the interior minister claimed. The minister said the situation in Punjab had settled down and there was “complete peace at the moment.” He expressed his happiness and said the people of Punjab were not part of this “fitna” adding “may Allah guide those who attended the march. Sanaullah added that the people in Balochistan did not even know about this “fasad”, while people in Sindh had refused to be part of it. “Only a few thousand people are a part of the march and they are in possession of weapons and teargas. They are trying to overtake the federal capital while using government protocol,” he added.

Sana said the PTI chairman wanted to “instigate” a civil war. Calling the march an “unconstitutional act”, the PML-N leader said that the PTI will have to face the consequences. He maintained that people preferred to stay at home rather than attend the march.

“People want the nation to move forward,” he said, thanking the media for playing a positive role in the ongoing situation. The minister said that the Supreme Court had directed constitution of a negotiating team between the government and the PTI adding that the PTI has formed a four-member committee and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also appointed a team. “The party can hold public meetings but violation of the law cannot be tolerated,” he added.

He said the Imran Khan-led party was seeking the release of the arrested members.

“Around 4,414 raids have been carried out, and about 1,700 people have been arrested,” he said, adding that 240 people had left for their homes after signing an affidavit; however, some were detained under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance. He also said that no arrests were made in Balochistan and Sindh.

Sanaullah added that the PTI members were asking to get arrested and then spreading propaganda of a crackdown. He added that there were no talks going on with the PTI and no agreement had been made.

He said the government will not tolerate terrorism in guise of politics as police had seized a huge cache of weapons from the residence of a PTI leader in Lahore.

“The seizure of heavy arms and ammunition from the houses of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) officials is evidence of a bloody march”, the federal minister said.

The federal minister said PTI general secretary’s house was a depot of ammunition and recovery of arms from the houses of PTI officials was a proof of a bloody march. The nation has seen that from where did the bullet came which killed an innocent police personnel.

This incident has proved that PTI’s march is not a peaceful political caravan but an armed struggle, he said.