LAHORE, NOV 7: This is third time that PTI has announced date for long march’s resumption; before this, march was scheduled for Tuesday and then Wednesday.

LAHORE: PTI Chairman Imran Khan said Monday that the party’s long march would achieve its target “no matter what the circumstances” as the former prime minister pressurises the government in his quest for snap polls.

Khan is currently recovering in Lahore from the bullet injuries that he sustained in the Wazirabad attempted assassination attack. He was discharged from the Shaukat Khanum Hospital a day earlier.

The ex-prime minister, during a meeting with representatives of media bodies, said that the party would back down only after getting the date for general elections.

Khan said that no compromise can be made with coalition rulers, including PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

The long march plans

In a change of plans, Khan said the march would resume on Wednesday (November 9) instead of Tuesday. The PTI chief did not give a reason for the delay.

He said the march would be led by PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar and the party’s vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The long march had come to a halt last week after the attack on Khan.

On army

The PTI chief — who has been critical of the armed forces since his ouster in April — said that the personnel of the army standing guard on the borders were like his “children”.

Khan said that going against the institution was not an option for the party.

The former prime minister has blamed three people, including a senior military official, for the Wazirabad attack and also called for his dismissal. However, the army has rejected the allegation and termed it “baseless”.

Letter to president

Earlier in the day, the PTI chairman wrote a letter to President Arif Alvi saying that the entire nation has been supporting his call for “Haqeeqi Azadi” ever since the PTI government was toppled.

PTI has been facing false allegations, harassment, baseless arrests and tactics like torture in detention, he wrote, adding that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah repeatedly “threatens to kill me”.

He urged the president to arrange an investigation to determine who is responsible and to hold the culprits accountable.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Islamabad High Court (IHC) Athar Minallah Monday advised the country’s political leadership against bringing their conflicts to courts and rather strengthening the Parliament by resolving those issues in democratic ways.

“Our tragedy is the state has failed to shoulder its responsibilities. Half of our life was spent in dictatorships, while the courts in their rulings have time and again reiterated there is no supremacy of law and that law is only for the elite,” the CJ of IHC said while addressing a full court reference organised in his honour.

He said the IHC was not like any other high court as it represented the federation.

“The implementation of the law is linked to a change of mindset. Political leadership can strengthen the execution of the Constitution.”

It was the responsibility of the political leadership to resolve their issues in the legislature instead of dragging them to courts of law, he added.

He further said their (judiciary’s) performance could be gauged by how much trust the public had in the legal system.

“The answer to the question ‘if there is any civilian and constitutional supremacy’ is a no. There’s no rule of law hear, but the rule of the elite,” said he.

LAHORE, NOV 7: Former prime minister Imran Khan has called on President Arif Alvi to define “clear operational lines” of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) while also asking him to act against the “abuse of power and violations of our laws and of the Constitution,” it emerged on Monday.

In a letter dated November 6, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the PTI chief appealed to the president to take note of “serious wrongdoings” which were undermining the country’s national security. He also asked Alvi to identify the “guilty” and hold them accountable.

He lamented that since the PTI government’s ouster, the party had been confronted with “an ever increasing scale of false allegations, harassment, arrests and custodial torture”.

Imran claimed that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had repeatedly issued death threats against him. He also reiterated his claims about a conspiracy being hatched to assassinate him by the interior minister, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a senior military official.

“The plot was operationalised earlier this week during our long march but Allah saved me and the assassination attempt failed,” he said.

In his letter, Imran raised three separate points regarding the Prime Minister Office leak, the cypher controversy and the role of the ISPR.

He claimed that Official Secrets Act was breached when a “confidential conversation between myself as prime minister, the Chief of Army Staff and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), on a supposedly secure line, was ‘leaked’ to the media”.

“This raises a very serious question as to who or what organisation was involved in doing a clearly illegal wiretap of the PM’s secure phone line? This is a breach of national security at the highest level,” he said.

A series of separate audio recordings surfaced in September, allegedly featuring the leadership of the PTI and PML-N holding informal conversations never meant to be heard by the public.

Imran also went on to talk about the cypher controversy, which the former premier has long touted of as evidence to overturn his government through a foreign conspiracy.

He noted that the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting held during his tenure had “decided this was an unacceptable intrusion into our internal matters” which was also later reaffirmed during the meeting held under the Shehbaz government.

However, the joint press conference of the DG ISI and DG ISPR had the “former contradicting the decision made by the NSC under two governments and stating that the message of the US government conveyed by our envoy in Washington DC in the cypher was not an unacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs but simply a case of ‘misconduct’.”

“The question that needs to be examined is how two military bureaucrats can publicly contradict a decision of the NSC? This also raises the serious issue of these military bureaucrats deliberately trying to create a false narrative.”

Imran also posed two further questions: how the head of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency could hold a public press conference and how two military bureaucrats could hold a “highly political press conference”.

“The parameters of a military information organisation such as the ISPR also need to be clearly defined and limited to information relating to defence and military issues. As supreme commander of the armed forces, I call on you to initiate the drawing up of these clear operational lines for the ISPR.”

Imran concluded his letter by telling Alvi to protect the country’s democracy and Constitution.

“No person or state institution can be above the law of the land. We have been seeing a massive abuse of citizens at the hands of rogue elements within state organisations, including custodial torture and abductions all carried out with impunity.

“You hold the highest office of state and I am requesting you to act now to stop the abuse of power and violations of our laws and of the Constitution, which ensures the fundamental rights of every citizen,” Imran wrote in the letter.

• CJP Umar Ata Bandial warns of suo motu notice if FIR not registered within 24 hours.
• CM’s objections cannot stop police from registering the case, says CJP.
• Asks Punjab Police chief to assign honest officer to investigate attack on Imran Khan.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed Inspector General of Punjab Police Faisal Shahkar to register a first information report on the assassination attempt on PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Wazirabad.

The orders were issued by the Supreme Court while hearing the contempt of court plea filed against the former prime minister by the government over his long march to Islamabad.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Bandial condemned the assassination attempt on Khan’s life and asked his lawyer Salman Akram Raja whether an FIR was registered as of yet.

“I am not aware about the FIR. An attempt was made to register an FIR but I don’t think it has been registered as of yet,” said Raja.

At this, CJP Bandial lamented that it’s been more than 90 hours since the attack took place and the FIR was yet to be registered. The delay in the registration of the FIR means that the police investigation has not begun as of yet.

“If the police did not investigate, the evidence may have been destroyed at the crime scene. This way the evidence of the case will be controversial and will be unacceptable in court,” said the CJP.

At this point, IG Shahkar appeared before the bench.

“I have heard about your achievements at the international level, register the FIR and inform us about it,” the CJP to told the cop. He also directed the province’s top cop to keep on working, assuring that if someone would intervene the court would look into it.

The top judge of the country also directed the Punjab Police chief to assign an honest officer to investigate the attack on Imran Khan.

“We have seen your resignation. The court assures you that no one will intervene in actions taken by you as per the law,” said the CJP.

At this, the IG informed the court that Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi had some objections to the registration of the case.

“The registration of the case has some political angles to it but the police also have authority,” said Shahkar.

Justice Bandial directed the Punjab Police chief to keep working as per the law. He added that if there is a delay in the registration of the FIR then they will take up the case as a problem in the criminal justice system.

“Chief minister’s objections cannot stop the police from registering the case,” said the CJP

“For now, we are not taking suo motu notice but if an FIR is not registered within 24 hours then we will take suo motu notice,” remarked Justice Bandial.

Azam Swati case

During the course of the hearing, PTI Senator Azam Swati also appeared in court.

Upon seeing him, the CJP remarked that what happened to him was “very painful”.

“Your case is ongoing in Human Rights Cell. The court is careful in this matter, the case will be seen according to the law,” said the CJP. He also told the senator that he never stayed at in Supreme Court’s rest house.

“Yes, you’re right I stayed in Quetta federal loges,” told the senator.

The top judge of the country also directed PEMRA and PTA to remove the alleged video of the senator.

SC to summon report from investigators in Kenya

The chief justice also spoke about the letter written by slain journalist Arshad Sharif’s mother to the chief justice.

“HRC is investigating Arshad Sharif’s mother’s letter,” said the CJP. He added that the court will see the fact-finding commission’s report on Arshad Sharif’s murder.

“An Investigation team has gone to Kenya for probe. We are summoning a report from the commission,” said the CJP. He added that once the material comes then it will be easy for them to provide assistance, saying that without evidence the court will keep moving its head here and there. 

The contempt case

The delay in the registration of the FIR on Imran Khan’s attack, Azam Swati’s alleged video and Arshad Sharif were taken up by the CJP during the hearing of the contempt plea filed against the PTI chief.   

On October 13, the federal government filed a contempt of court plea against PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the Supreme Court over his long march call to Islamabad.

In its petition, the federal government told the apex court that the PTI chief is making announcements of marching towards Islamabad, which was a violation of a court order.

“Imran Khan is making announcements to attack Islamabad,” says the plea. It urged the top court to direct the PTI chief to ensure the implementation of its orders related to protests and sit-ins.

The petition has been filed by the interior ministry on behalf of the federal government.