PTI’s proposed law aimed at persecuting opposition: Ahsan Iqbal

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal says the party will take Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government's proposed draconian law of abducting civilians for six months to the international community and ask them if they laid down any such requirements over the FATF issue.

In a press conference at the PML-N Lahore Secretariat, he said the government was fuming over the fact that the opposition caught it trying to sneak in the worst possible tyrannical law in the name of Financial Action Task Force. He said the PTI proposed a law under which any businessman, trader, journalist or opposition member could be abducted and detained at any location without any legal, constitutional or judicial protection for the incumbent. He said the PTI forges every legislation with an intent to sabotage, persecution and victimise Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and all of its political rivals, which is why it pursues such laws that are even worse than those being used by India in the occupied Kashmir to subjugate, persecute and oppress the people.

Ahsan said the government bill of mutual legal assistance in the pipeline is also designed for the same purpose to target political opponents. But what the government did not realise is that the law could be used against the martial interest and any country of the world could demand access to even our atomic energy scientists.

He demanded that the mutual legal assistance bill should be vetted by Pakistan Bar Council and other relevant legal bodies so that the people of Pakistan are not robbed off their constitutional rights.

Talking of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), he said the government said it wanted to abolish NAB, but the truth was contradictory to the claims. He said the PML-N stance over NAB had been endorsed by the Supreme Court that it was lopsided law which was mostly used for political victimisation and one-sided accountability. Ahsan demanded that NAB be amended in the light of the Supreme Court observations and the guidance of Islamic Ideological Council.

Ahsan appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo moto action over the baseless allegation of Rs5 billion kickbacks by him in construction of Multan-Sukkur Motorway. He said the government needlessly approved a special ordinance for Kalbhushan Jhadav when Pakistan's lawyer maintained in the ICJ that there were precedents of military court decisions being challenged in civilian courts.

He said the toothless, spineless, coward Imran government’s failure to respond to India's illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir brought shame and embarrassment to the nation. He said Pakistan was on track to become one of the world's top 25 economies by year 2025, but the way Imran Khan had brought the country down, he would be tried in the courts of justice by the opposition for the damage he did to the economy.