LAHORE: PML-N leader Senator Pervaiz Rasheed has asked caretaker Chief Minister Dr Hassan Askari to face the media and own that party workers were arrested on the CM’s orders.

“I do not demand Dr Askari release PML-N workers,” he said.

At a news conference around mid-day on Friday, Mr Rasheed thundered and asked Dr Askari to take responsibility for all the alleged chaos in Lahore. Dr Askari used to appear frequently on news channels and express his views against the PML-N, but he had gone silent after becoming the caretaker CM.

He said state institutions were being made controversial due to alleged partial decisions against the PML-N and cited examples of picking up of ticket-holder Qamarul Islam Raja in Rawalpindi and denying of Nawaz Sharif’s request to delay judgement in his case for a week. Mr Sharif just wanted to see his wife recovering, he added.

On the other hand, the PML-N leader said, PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur’s cases have been put off and would be heard after the elections.

He further said the PML-N’s newly elected government had allowed Imran Khan in 2014 to move freely through Lahore while leading a rally towards Islamabad in an attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government. “The PML-N leaders and workers were not going to Lahore airport to topple any government but to welcome their leaders,” he said, claiming that those at the helm of affairs had made state institutions controversial.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018