Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Amid intense speculations that India could reclaim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Islamabad plotting to annex PoK soon, the Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi’s government has lodged an FIR against the “Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)”, Farooq Haider Khan, charging him with “conspiring” against the country.
According to media reports, Farooq Haider was booked on Monday in Lahore for listening to his party leader Nawaz Sharif’s recent online speech, in which the former PM criticized the Pakistan Army.
A case was registered at Lahore’s Shahdara police station against Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or PML-N’s supremo Nawaz Sharif, along with Farooq Haider Khan and other party leaders for “conspiring” against Pakistan and its army.
The case was registered under different sections of Pakistan’s Penal Code related to cyber-terrorism, criminal conspiracy to wage war against the nation, condemnation of the creation of Pakistan, advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty, sedition, and promotion of enmity between various groups.
The others accused of participating in the PML-N’s central executive committee and working committee meetings last week included Nawaz’s daughter Maryam, and party leaders Rana Sanaullah, Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pervez Rashid, Maryam Aurangzeb, and Ataullah Tarar.
Pakistan’s daily Dawn, quoting from the FIR, stated that “Instead of availing medical treatment in London, Nawaz is carrying out a planned conspiracy to defame the country and its institutions by making inflammatory speeches.”
The FIR alleged that in his speeches on September 20 and October 1, the former PM supported the policies of arch-rival India so that Pakistan continued to remain on the global watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey list’.
“The main purpose of Nawaz Sharif’s speeches is to isolate Pakistan in the international community and to have it declared a rogue state,” the FIR said, adding that the former PM was doing this to help his “friend” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PM Imran Khan had said last week that Nawaz Sharif was playing a “dangerous game” by charging the Pakistan Army with political interference and that India was helping the PML-N chief.
On September 20, speaking from London at a multiparty virtual conference held in Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif had hit out at the Army, accusing it of installing Imran Khan’s ‘incompetent’ government, wrecking Pakistan’s economy and foreign relations, censoring the media, and indulging in massive corruption.
It was important that Pakistan’s armed forces stayed away from the governmental system as per the country’s Constitution and founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision, and not interfere with the people’s choice. “We have made this country a joke in our own eyes and internationally as well,” Sharif said.
The former premier, who was overthrown and jailed in a corruption case in Pakistan, has been in London for medical treatment since November 2019.
The conference was attended by Pakistan’s main opposition parties, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
An Islamic hardliner, Rehman had held the opposition parties responsible for allowing the Imran Khan government to survive and urged them to “take concrete decisions”.
He had also claimed that the Imran government would be toppled by October 12, 2020.
