ISLAMABAD, March 11: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N condemned on Tuesday the kidnapping and torture of the Punjab Assembly deputy opposition leader, Rana Sanaullah.

In separate statements, they demanded of the government to hold an inquiry into the incident.

PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif, strongly condemning the “torture and disfiguring” of Mr Sanaullah, called it “a brutal act in the tradition of Hitler and Halaku Khan.”

In a statement issued by the PML-N office here, he said upholding truth, supporting justice and exposing misdeeds of the rulers was the only offence of Rana Sanaullah. It was second time that he had to suffer this inhuman treatment due to his upright behaviour, he added.

Mr Sharif said Mr Sanaullah was engaged in “waging the most honourable Jihad by speaking truth in the face of a tyrant.” The leaders and workers of the party applauded him for his boldness.

The political secretary of Ms Benazir Bhutto, Ms Naheed Khan, said kidnapping and torture of the deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly by the sleuth of a state agency was not only most shocking but also most disgraceful.

By seeking to humiliate an elected member of the House by shaving off his hair and moustache, she said, the perpetrators of this unpardonable crime had heaped humiliation upon themselves.

Ms Khan said the deputy opposition leader had publicly accused an official agency of his kidnapping, torture and humiliation and, thus, it was the moral responsibility of the agency to publicly clear its name.

She said if an agency could invite foreign journalists to its head office for public clarification on Osama bin Laden, “it can also go public to clear its position on the issue of kidnapping and torturing of an elected leader.”

She said much deeper scars would be inflicted on the body politics of the country than those inflicted on Mr Sanaullah’s body “of this shameful conduct of those who take pride in conquering their own people.”

On behalf of the PPP, she demanded of the government to hold an inquiry, and expose and punish the perpetrators of this crime.