LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan has warned the PTI of strict action if it tries to invade the federal capital in the name of protest.
He said the government would facilitate the PTI if it wanted to record its protest at the places designated by the Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court.
Sana said if the Punjab and KP didn’t provide police personnel, the Centre would have 10,000 personnel from Rangers, FC and Islamabad Police while they can also get security forces from Sindh. He said the Punjab had also been written for providing security.
Addressing a press conference here Saturday, he warned that if PTI came in the form of armed groups, strict action would be taken against them and the federal government would also stop them in any case.
Azma Bukhari, Khalil Tahir Sindhu and other party leaders were also present.
Answering a question about the appointment of the new army chief, Rana Sanullah said that the decision would be taken in accordance with the Constitution and law. He said if the government succumbed to Imran Khan’s pressure on the issue, it would be disastrous.
“It is not difficult to bring in a change in Punjab. It is a matter of one or two votes. Fifteen people of the PTI are in contact,” he said while answering another question.
He said the decision of imposing Governor’s Rule in Punjab would be taken by the cabinet.
“Imran Khan is trying to destroy the country. Shaukat Tarin’s role as a Pakistani is very shameful and Imran Khan has not spoken a single word about it. The PTI wants to come to Islamabad to protest. So come, but if you try to invade the state, you will be thwarted, the police and Rangers will also be called,” he said.
Replying to a question about former finance minister Ishaq Dar, he said that Dar was arriving next week and he would lead the economic team.
Rana Sanaullah said the process of organising the party was going on under the directions of Nawaz Sharif. The party has requested Nawaz Sharif to lead the party in the upcoming elections, he said.
He said a meeting of the Punjab PMLN was held Saturday and later a divisional convention would also be held to complete organisation up to the level of the provincial constituency. The party will be completed up to the union council, he said.
“Organisation of 4,000 union councils has been completed. Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehbaz will visit all the districts of Punjab, which will provide a basis for the party to make better decisions in 2023,” he said, adding they will start the party’s reorganisation from Oct 15 and will complete it by December.
The minister said that efforts were being made to create a political impression that the PTI’s narrative and popularity were high. He admitted that inflation had not been controlled.
“Our claim was that as soon as the IMF agreement is reached, we will give relief immediately, but the IMF deal is not final yet as Imran Khan had purposely delayed it, which was an anti-national act,” he said and maintained that Imran Khan had violated the IMF conditions by not taking difficult decisions to save his politics due to which the country had suffered an irreparable damage.
The interior minister admitted that due to difficult decisions, inflation had increased and the PMLN had suffered a big political loss. He said the flood calamity had added to their problems.
The cause of floods was climatic changes, which were not the fault of any province, he said.
Rana Sanaullah said that two or three votes could remove Pervaiz Elahi from the chief ministership but at present the PMLN didn’t want to change this setup. He said if the Federation was challenged, there were many ways in the Constitution.
Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has refused to provide police or Frontier Constabulary to the federal government, citing deteriorating security situation in the militancy-stricken province while the Punjab interior minister claims no request has been received from the Centre.
KP Minister and senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Shaukat Yousufzai told The News that the KP government had principally decided not to send the police force to the federal government owing to the worsening security situation of the province.
“We are passing through a difficult situation and the existing police force is inadequate to handle the growing security constraints in the province. Also, the erstwhile Fata has become a part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but we didn’t have any additional police force for the tribal districts and rather dependent on the existing police force,” he explained.
Keeping in mind all these constraints and needs of the province, Shaukat Yousafzai argued they had refused to send their police force to Islamabad.
On the other hand, Punjab Interior Minister Hashim Dogar has said the province has never received a request from the federal government to send police force to the Centre.
He also made it clear that the Punjab would not entertain the Centre’s request in this regard. He has said that they are aware that the force is being sought in view of the PTI’s call for protest. He has also said that the federal government will never ask for Punjab Police.