Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Monday lashed out at the Rangers for barring PML-N leaders, lawyers and supporters of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif from entering an accountability court in Islamabad where the former premier had appeared for a hearing regarding several graft cases opened against him.
Speaking to reporters before he departed from the court in protest, Iqbal said courts are "open spaces" which supporters and lawyers of the defendant could enter.
The minister said it was only during martial law governments that closed trials were conducted, adding that trials held in democracies are "transparent".
He said the Islamabad chief commissioner had decided on the names of media personnel and PML-N leaders and supporters who would be allowed to enter the court on Monday. However, he said, the commissioner informed him this morning that "Rangers have suddenly appeared and taken over this place".
He further said the Rangers are deployed under the command of the chief commissioner in Islamabad.
Iqbal said the chief commissioner informed him that when he [the commissioner] told Rangers officials that a plan prepared in advance would be followed regarding entry to the court, the Rangers officials in command refused to accept the plan and said they would follow the orders they have been given and "would not allow anyone but Nawaz Sharif to enter [the court]".
He said he was "forced" to take notice of the situation because "Rangers is a force which is subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and when they are deployed, they are supposed to work under the command of the civil administration".
Iqbal said if the Rangers had violated orders of the civil administration, a "high-level inquiry" would be ordered into the matter and it would be determined "who challenged the writ of the government".
The minister said the local commander of the Rangers "vanished" for 15 minutes when he was called to discuss the situation.
He also threatened to resign if the rule didn't become clear about what the writ of the state and the civil administration is.
"I cannot be a puppet interior minister," he said.
He further questioned whose orders the paramilitary force was following when the ministry he [Iqbal] heads did not issue the orders the force was enforcing.
"There will be one law here and one government... two states cannot function within one state."
The minister said he had also brought the issue to the notice of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. He also directed the district administration to submit a report into the incident.
Although a Rangers official came out of the court to convince PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz to attend the hearing, the minister refused to enter after several of his party leaders had already left.
'SSP Islamabad request for Rangers deployment rejected'
The Senior Superintendent Police (Operations) Islamabad Sajid Kiani requested Deputy Commissioner Mushtaq Ahmed to approve the deployment of 200 Rangers personnel at the Judicial Complex today, but the request was rejected, DawnNews reported.
A letter purportedly written by the SSP surfaced today, in which Kiani asks the DC to deploy Rangers officials around the premises "to perform duty along with police".
"The Rangers officials will not be directly involved in dealing with the public during their duties along with police," the letter said.
However, DC Ahmed told DawnNews that the SSP's request had been rejected.
An official handout from the DC regarding the SSP's letter said: "On receipt of said letter, the deputy commissioner discussed the same with the SSP Operations. After mutual discussion, no further action was taken by the deputy commissioner on the said letter, [and] neither [did the] deputy commissioner issue any instruction to [the] Panjnad Rangers regarding the deployment of Rangers in the premises of [the] NAB court. Rangers was not requisitioned by the ICT Administration for any kind of deployment in the premises of court on 2nd October 2017."
