Will US lawmakers seek release of attackers of Washington buildings
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday that Imran Khan had initiated a campaign against the establishment after the latter clearly told him they would not interfere in the country’s political situation.
Speaking to the media in Narowal, he said, “There is a method in every madness. Imran Khan and PTI’s May 9 madness, which they say was a reaction to the arrest, was not a reaction but a plan,” he said.
He also took exception to Imran’s assertion that “agencies” were involved in the violent protest that broke out in the country following his arrest.
“PTI MNAs, MPAs, all those whose pictures have been shown on the media, were these people from the agencies?” he asked. Ahsan said that the events of May 9 cannot be categorised as a political protest in “any country under any circumstance”.
Referring to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol Hill, he questioned whether US lawmakers would write to their own government to release those who attacked the building in Washington. “No democracy in the world allows protest to be turned into terrorism, chaos, arson and wherever these activities are conducted, they are taken up with the law.”
The minister asserted that security agencies had gathered evidence to trace those responsible for the May 9 violence. The Minister termed protestors’ reaction “unprecedentedly irrational”. Ahsan Iqbal deemed the May 9 vandalism on military installations by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers as “9/11-type” attacks on the national interests of the country.
In an interview on Sunday, the minister lamented over the regrettable act by the party’s workers who barged into and destroyed several symbols of Pakistan’s pride including the Jinnah House, Yadgar-e-Shuhada, fighter jets of the famous 1965 war and the Chagai mountain model.
He added that the protesters’ reaction after their party’s chairman Imran Khan’s arrest over corruption charges was “unprecedentedly irrational, unacceptable and not less than the 9/11 attacks” carried out in the US in 2001.
“The May-9 incident for Pakistan’s Armed Forces was equivalent to the September 11 of America. The violent workers of a political party attacked Pakistan’s heritage and the pride of the security departments. The ‘Jinnah House’ was not only the residence of a Corps Commander rather a heritage of the founder of the country,” he observed.
The minister said the model of Chagai Mountain, which reminded the nation of nuclear tests carried out by its scientists that made the country’s defence impregnable, was also set on fire. “So, these people, too, do not deserve any mercy as they have attacked the national heritage and pride of the Armed Forces,” he said, adding that evidence-based legal proceedings would be initiated against those involved in the subversive activities.
“Those who caused destruction in civil areas will be prosecuted under the civil law, while those who attacked military installations, will be tried under the Army Act.”
