LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said he is willing to issue a sworn statement about the Model Town incident to clear any misunderstandings, sources informed Geo News on Saturday. Rana Sana said he was willing to state under oath that the Model Town tragedy was not pre-planned. "A JIT was formed with civil and military officials and we recorded our statements under oath that the tragedy was an incident," said the law minister.
He added that the PAT workers and their chief, Dr Tahirul Qadri, were equally responsible as Qadri had incited them to clash with police.
Commenting on the reports about his meetings with PAT leader Khurram Nawaz Gandapur on multiple occasions, the provincial minister said he had met the PAT representative in 2015 and 2016. The Punjab government had always tried to engage the PAT and asked the party to let the matter reach its logical conclusion according to the law, he added.
It is said that in one of these meetings, the government tried to convince the PAT for compensation, but Gandapur rejected the offer, saying the money was too little.
Separately, Rana Sana told reporters in Sialkot that the demand for his resignation would not be fulfilled before upcoming general election. He ruled out the possibility of any NRO, saying “the Sharif brothers do not need any NRO”.
Meanwhile, the PML-N leadership termed the Qadri-led APC a failure on all fronts as none of the major political party heads participated in the meeting, while those, who did, could not agree on any concrete actionable agenda.
Rana Sana said the APC was a total failure because every participant had a different agenda. Qadri was pursuing the case in courts and had not voiced an objection on the process going even once, but at the same time, he was doing politics over the bodies through his tactics.
About the APC participants, he said, “There are those who do not have the desire for any agitation in the form of sit-ins and marches but want him to continue badmouthing the PMLN government to discredit it before elections. There are others who want to put Qadri on the container and engage the government in dealing with another one of his fiascos while they gain political mileage.”
Talking about the Jan 7, resignation deadline, he said it was a clear measure of how badly the APC failed to agree on any future action. ”If they were not able to come up with an actionable agenda in an APC of all major political parties, what miracles will a working committee achieve. This is just a cover-up for the embarrassing failure of this congregation,” he said.
PML-N Finance Secretary Senator Pervaiz Rashid said the fact that no leader of any major political party attended the APC tells a lot about this unholy alliance. “The political parties didn’t even send their second-tier leadership”, he said.
He said for over 30 minutes, the guests were complaining about their protocol issues with the seating, while Qadri, the host, called them ill-mannered for messing up the arrangements.
He said the APC was called to discuss provision of justice to the Model Town victims, but all the speeches focused on how to drive Nawaz Sharif out of politics forever, which showed the real motive. It also exposed the agenda of using the bodies to further their political interests, he added.
State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said the APC indicated that no single party felt strong enough to challenge Nawaz. “It is one of unusual alliances, the likes of which the country saw in 2014 and the true agenda and motivators of these alliances are known to the nation.”
According to Marriyum, she doesn’t blame Imran because he is desperate and that’s what one expects from a desperate person, while the others are joining this bandwagon to collect the crumbs.
PMLN Information Secretary Senator Mushahidullah said it was a disturbing sight to see the advocates of democracy sitting around Qadri who dug the grave of democracy in 2014. The PAT chief failed to fulfil his arrogant claim that he could make Asif Zardari and Imran sit on the same table any day he desired, he added.
Mushahidullah said the PPP’s claimed that it was onboard only for the 14 martyrs, but surprisingly, the party leadership did not find the lives of over 200 murdered in Baldia Town or on May 12 worthy enough to call an APC or take a stand.
“This so-called alliance is not for anything good but against everything happening in favour of Pakistan on the socioeconomic front through the hard work of Nawaz and PML-N,” he noted.
He said with only a few months left, those who had been rejected by the people and failed to deliver in their respective provinces, were ganging up because they knew that they could not defeat Nawaz in electoral politics.
Veteran PMLN Leader Khawaja Ahmad Hassan said the APC participants understand the fact that they did not have a way out and had no chance to win through the ballot, forcing them to resort to such tactics.
He said Pakistan’s history showed that such devices only led to self-destruction for those employed these. The efforts to slow down PMLN’s development efforts would fail as the people only cared about the development projects’ deadlines, not for their disruption.
Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said it was difficult to understand the real intention of Qadri because he was pursuing the legal means and complaining at the same time.
According to Sarwar, by holding such APCs and flaring the issue up, these people are basically expressing their distrust in and maligning the judiciary, while at the same time giving an impression that they enjoy the backing of judiciary, which they do not.