A ‘mistake’: says opposition leader on not trying Imran Khan for seven year old parliament attack

Lahore, Pakistan: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal in connection with a seven year old parliament attack said that not trying Prime Minister Imran Khan for treason was a mistake.
“We should have filed a treason case against Imran Khan under Article 6 for attacking the parliament… but we could not, which was our mistake,” Iqbal told a presser in the party’s secretariat on Monday, reported Dawn.
He said that the attack on the parliament was a ‘grave crime’ as it was tantamount to attacking the constitution and said that the mistake of not trying Khan was for the larger interest as the Nawaz Sharif government did not want to be accused of political victimisation.
A party insider said some members had asked Nawaz to book Imran Khan under Article 6 but he could not take a decision to the effect saying that it would not work as the ‘powers that be’ were with Khan.
This comes after an anti-terrorism court had acquitted the Prime Minister in the 2014 Parliament House attack case, Dawn reported.
On Sept 1, 2014, hundreds of protesters belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), had allegedly ransacked the PTV headquarters and the Parliament House and brutally beaten a senior police official.
Imran Khan, Tahirul Qadri and several others were booked for their alleged involvement in the attack.
Iqbal further said that Khan had tried his utmost to topple the PML-N government in 2014 with the support of the ‘local and international establishment’.
“It was an open secret that Imran Khan along with the then DG ISI was conspiring against the elected government. With the help of the international lobbies Imran Khan had created hurdles in the visit of the Chinese president and got it postponed,” he said.
The opposition leader further said that the Imran Khan government was lying on its economic achievements as it burdened the nation with a loan of Rs 13,000 billion and it completely failed in tax collection.
The defeat in every by-election showed the [eroding] popularity of the PTI government which had made the lives of the masses miserable, he said.
The PML-N leader also warned the PTI government against making any plan to postpone the upcoming Pakistan-occupied Kashmir election.