MUZAFFARABAD: Fede­ral Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday said May 9 was not an incident of “political protest” as claimed by the PTI leadership, but a revolt against the state of Pakistan and its sacred institutions and its perpetrators would be penalised at all costs.

“It was insurrection and rebellion carried out under a well-worked-out plot and it cannot be overlooked and forgiven as a political protest,” he said without mincing words at a by-election-related gathering arranged by PML-N candidate Mushtaq Minhas on the outskirts of Bagh.

“They attacked and ransacked army’s defence installations with shameless audacity, looted and torched Jinnah house apart from stealing or destroying sensitive information,” he said of PTI activists, and added caustically: “If these offences do not come under the purview of the Army Act 1952, then should the government make recoveries under traffic challans or through the village arbitration council?”

The minister maintained that if the army did not invoke the Army Act, stolen information could land in the hands of the neighbouring country and be used against Pakistan. He said that over the past 75 years, many parties had developed differences with or complaints against the governments and military dictators, but none had ever resorted to attacks on the GHQ or other military installations.

Minister says people involved in rioting to be tried in both anti-terrorism and military courts

He hinted that those who were quitting the PTI would also have to face the music in case their involvement was also proven in the unlawful acts.

“Now they are addressing press conferences and making announcements regarding quitting the PTI. But there won’t be any pardon for those who knew the plans to put the country on fire, but did not play any role to stop it.”

Their cases would be tried in military courts, anti-terrorism courts and would be penalised, he declared.

The minister alleged that Imran Khan had also tried to create a divide in the army, but failed for want of support from the public. He asserted that the PML-N held the judiciary in esteem, but when it was in power the judiciary had disqualified its leader [Nawaz Sharif] for “not taking salary from his son”.

He claimed that the coming time was of the PML-N and it would sweep Punjab in particular where the vote bank of Nawaz Sharif was intact. “Before May 9, the contest was between the PML-N and the PTI, but the situation has changed after May 9 because the saboteurs and terrorists have lost the right to do politics,” he said.

Predicting that the PTI would split into three to four groups, he said some of them would join the PPP and others would team up with the Jahangir Tareen group. “Though we have little space for them, we may accept good people from [PTI ranks] but not at the cost of our workers.”

Earlier, he said while Azad Kashmir was incomplete without occupied Kashmir, Pakistan was also incomplete without the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023