Slur on armed forces: How KP cabinet allowed legal action against PDM leaders

PESHAWAR: The inside story of a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet’s special meeting has come to the light. The cabinet has decided to allow initiating legal action against Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Rana Sanaullah, Captain (retd) Safdar and others for allegedly speaking against the armed forces and instigating the public.

According to documents and minutes of the meeting, held on last Wednesday, available with this scribe, former federal minister Ali Ameen Gandapur attended the meeting on special invitation and played certain video clips of PDM leaders before the cabinet. Two KP ministers Shaukat Yousafzai and Ishtiaq Umar disagreed with lodging FIRs, but Taimur Jhagra and Muhammad Ali Saif supported Gandapur for legal action. The provincial cabinet was in unison in observing that the conduct of Shahbaz Gill was unbecoming and that he should have been more careful in his choice of words. It said the PTI should disassociate itself from such statements being not in consonance with the party policies. The cabinet demanded that Gill apologise or face the consequences.

Sources confirmed on condition of anonymity that Gandapur dominated the cabinet meeting. The cabinet was informed that Imran Khan wanted to lodge cases against the PDM leadership because they defamed the army and provoked the people.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan informed the meeting that Gandapur had approached him and that unfortunately certain elements in the country and abroad launched a slur campaign against different institutions, including the armed forces, and had been by design instilling hatred against these institutions. This amounted to a clear affront to the armed forces and was a part of the fifth-generation warfare against Pakistan. “He, being a patriotic son of the soil and while hailing from a family where his father and brother also served the armed forces, urged the KP government to allow him to invoke necessary legal action against all the perpetrators of such crime,” the CM said.

Gandapur, seconding the CM, informed the cabinet that it was really unfortunate that although it had been a known narrative of the PDM leadership to malign the armed forces publicly, the media cells of PDM parties and the federal government were trying hard to create an impression that the PTI was against the armed forces. He highlighted that the PTI government, before the government change, had the most cordial working relationship with the armed forces. It was their strength, but, unfortunately, now a negative impression had successfully been created.

Taimur Saleem Jhagra, while agreeing with the chief minister and Gandapur, said because such trends needed to be curbed, the provincial government should not sit idle and initiate legal action, if any, against all those engaged in any malicious hate speech against the armed forces, without any discrimination, fear or favour.

Shaukat Yousafzai was of the view that the course of action would be carefully examined as the incidents appeared to have taken place in Punjab and there was an inordinate delay in making legal proceedings far less sustainable and pointed to mala fide intentions.

The position was cleared by Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif who explained that such incidents were against the state and not subject to usual general principles. Ishtiaq Umar said that instead of lodging FIRs, the course of submitting applications to the judiciary could be explored.

The cabinet was of the view that it was unfortunate that Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Rana Sanaullah and Capt (retd) Safdar had been making public statements, using foul language, hurling baseless accusations, calling names and ascribing filth against the military establishment including Gen Bajwa with impunity.

Gandapur played certain video clips before the cabinet in which the PDM leadership was seen making extreme derogatory remarks against the army and its leadership, thereby, causing hatred among the general public. In some clips, Maulana Fazlur Rehman was allegedly seen associating the Pak Army with Israel. In another clip, Nawaz Sharif was accusing the highest military leadership of direct interference in national politics. In yet another clip, Zardari was seen charging the army with allegations of corruption.

The cabinet said that after going through these videos, a clear pattern appeared to have emerged that the PDM leadership had been engaged in an organised campaign against the armed forces and its leadership. The cabinet unanimously authorised Munir Ahmad, additional assistant commissioner, DI Khan, under Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, and other enabling provisions to receive written complaints from Gandapur or any other interested party and require local police to lodge FIRs under Section 108A, 153A read with Section 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, against the accused and pursue their cases under the relevant law.