LAHORE: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid claims that two more men including one of Maulana Fazlur Rehman will soon be arrested and there could be a horrible China-like accountability system in Pakistan if the references against the opposition leaders are filed by Imran Khan or ‘someone else’.

“There would be no long march or sit-in by Maulana Fazl if Imran Khan gives NRO to six people. Four of them are in jail and two are set to be behind the bars,” Rashid said. “I am telling you that a Maulana’s man will be behind the bars soon,” he told journalists at a press conference on Saturday.

On the other hand, the JUI-F leaders said Sheikh Rashid had no political standing now.

“There was a time when he (Rashid) was with Musharraf and in the past he was said to have given two National Assembly seats (where he contested elections) to Nawaz Sharif on a platter. A few days ago, he became the spokesman for the defence institutions and spoke about the country’s atomic capability,” JUI-F central leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad deplored.

Speaking to Dawn, he said: “On one hand, they (the government) is seeking dialogue with us and on the other, they are calling us traitors. So our question is when we are traitors, why they want to hold dialogue with us...

“Similarly, they are talking about arresting us side by side with promising to provide container and facilitating our march.”

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2019