LAHORE - Strongly reacting to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s last night presser about an alleged PTI’s plot to rape women in prisons to defame the government, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Sunday said that Rana Sanaullah whom he called 'a certified criminal’ was trying to cover up and preempt the horror stories about to break in the media.
In a strong reaction to Rana Sanaullah’s press conference, the PTI chairman stated that if there were any doubts about women being mistreated in jails, this press conference from this certified criminal had confirmed all such doubts. “He is so obviously trying to cover up and preempt the horror stories about to break in the media,” he added. Imran Khan went on to say that women have never been so mistreated and harassed by the state as they have been by this fascist government when they were exercising their right to protest peacefully.
Also, the PTI chief lashed out at the government for the alleged raids at the house of PTI Central Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan and Shahzad Akbar. “Today, we are living in the dark ages, as there is no one to protect our fundamental rights”, he said in a statement on Sunday.
The PTI chairman said that there were raids at night on Omar Ayub and Shahzad Akbar’s houses. He stated that Shahzad Akbar was not even in the country. “Today Constitution is being violated, court decisions openly flouted, houses broken in without warrant and smashed,” he remarked.
Imran said that the media was muzzled and there was no one to protect their fundamental rights. Separately, Imran Khan in a statement said that the nation wanted to know the whereabouts of senior journalists Sami Ibrahim and Imran Riaz Khan.
The PTI chairman asked why was the journalistic community so overawed and scared to demand for both to be produced in the court of law within 48 hours, as it was their fundamental right.
“Otherwise it should then be called an abduction,” he added.
Imran stated that these terror tactics were just an attempt to muzzle the media, so that this unprecedented fascist crackdown on the largest political party was only to be kept out of any media coverage.
Meanwhile, in a televised address to the party workers and supporters from Zaman Park on Sunday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan expressed serious concerns over the alleged abuse of detained PTI workers especially the women and urged the Supreme Court (SC) to take suo motu notice so as to get them out of the jail. “The way the PTI women workers were detained and thrown in jail, and the way they were being treated is alarming. We also heard reports of rape”, he alleged.
Imran Khan stated that he was getting reports of abuse from various locations. However, he added that such reports did not mention Adiala Jail but the female workers were being kept in deplorable conditions and the judiciary must take notice of the situation.
“There are no fundamental rights. The SC’s decisions are not being followed. The government does not care about the Constitution,” he remarked.
The PTI chairman said fundamental rights were being “violated every day and we are seeing no judiciary which can protect our rights”.
Imran Khan further stated that he was appealing to the SC judges to “take a stand otherwise history will remember” that the apex court judges did not perform their duty to stand with the nation when there was a “fascist government rolling back democracy”. “That is why I am respectfully appealing to you” to take notice of the alleged treatment of female PTI workers and supporters, Imran said, adding that suo motu notice should be taken on the matter to get the women released.
Imran Khan said that Rana’s statements could only mean two things. “Either they are afraid that these women, when they are released, will tell the stories of what happened to them, and the government is preparing for this scenario or that they are scared they have done something they cannot manage, so they want to preemptively create a narrative that this was all a big conspiracy and PTI did this themselves”.He said that he never saw women being treated like this in my political and non-political life, the way they were maltreated since May 25, 2022, adding that he was now sure it was part of a “plan to depoliticise women” and exclude them from participating in politics