ISLAMABAD: Dropping a hint that the government might bar the opposition from staging rallies across the country, Interior Minister retired Brig Ijaz Ahmad Shah on Monday said the state would not allow any anti-state agenda.

In a statement issued here, he observed that these rallies across the country should not be allowed.

The minister said that Nawaz Sharif, who according to him, had fled to London on humanitarian and health grounds, was now seeking refuge in pursuing the anti-state agenda.

“Now that Nawaz knows that he has to either pay back the money or face the court, he has started undermining the country’s institutions,” he added.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced in his initial speeches of 2018 that if any of the parties think sthat elections were rigged they should identify the seats to be re-examined, but they did not do that and have now started a hue and cry,” he added.

The interior minister said that the state was not so weak that it would succumb to the pressure of the ones who had looted the country for years and were now afraid of facing the reality. “No democracy in the world maligns its own institutions,” he added.

He observed that the opposition’s rallies had nothing to do with the betterment of Pakistan or democratic practices but were solely planned around anti-state agenda to create disruption across the country and give room to the external elements to find grounds to damage the country. He said the opposition was holding the rallies under the “pretext” of democracy but by no means these were in the country’s interest. “In my view the opposition should not be allowed to hold these rallies,” he said.

“The country’s honour and the dignity of its institutions are to be maintained and protected by all means,” he added. His statement came days before the opposition's first rally on Oct 11 in Quetta.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2020