The members of the federal cabinet on Thursday recommended filing a mutiny case against the former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan over a controversial statement regarding the state and the armed forces.
Most members of the federal cabinet, including Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, recommended that a case of mutiny be registered against Imran Khan.
A report will be submitted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today (Friday) regarding the registration of a case against the controversial statement of Imran Khan about the “disintegration of the country”.
According to sources, a meeting of the federal cabinet will take place on the return of the prime minister from Turkey.
The Interior Ministry has also started consulting legal experts in this respect.
On Tuesday, the PTI chairman had warned that if the establishment did not take the right decision then the army will be destroyed and Pakistan would split into three and quoted that as his reason for “putting pressure” on the powers that be.
Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday granted Imran Khan pre-arrest bail for 15 days in 14 cases registered against him following the party’s ‘Azadi March’ on May 25.
After the PTI chairman ended his march, Imran and other leaders of his party were booked in 14 cases registered at multiple police stations across Islamabad over allegations of arson and vandalism in the capital. On Thursday, a petition was filed in the court by Imran’s counsel Babar Awan, which was heard by PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan.
The chief justice granted Imran pre-arrest bail to Imran against a surety bond of Rs50,000. Imran attended the hearing in person.
Separately, a district court on Thursday received another application for the registration of an FIR against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and senior police officials over police action against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters during the party’s recent long march.
The development comes after the court’s earlier order to register a criminal case against the interior minister, CCPO, DIG and others. However, the additional district and sessions judge sought a reply from the police station concerned by June 4. The petitioner, advocate Afzal Azeem, contended that police high-ups not only tortured PTI’s workers but also baton-charged, used tear gas, and damaged their vehicles merely to prevent them from joining the party’s march.
He termed the police’s conduct a serious offence in which police officials assaulted citizens who were exercising their democratic right of protest. Azeem further contended that senior police officials committed this offence on the ‘whim of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, and Interior Minister Rana Sana Ullah’. He also made the CCPO, DIG and other high ranking officials respondents in the application.
The petitioner told the court that he visited the police station concerned but the police seemed reluctant to register an FIR and prayed the court to direct the SHO concerned to register the FIR against the above mentioned.
