PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar decried on Saturday the Punjab police’s move to raid the residences of his party’s lawmakers and register cases against them as an act of “revenge” for legal proceedings initiated against PTI’s Shahbaz Gill over his controversial remarks.
Tarar, who was speaking to the media alongside other PML-N leaders in Islamabad, said the raids were carried out on the instructions of the Punjab government — where an alliance of the PTI and PML-Q is at the helm — and warned Chief Minister Parvez Elahi’s government that they “will face the consequences of the trend of revenge they had set”.
“Parvez Elahi sahib, you and your son (Moonis Elahi) will face the consequences of this new trend that you have set,” Tarar reiterated, claiming that Moonis had been issuing instructions for action against PML-N leaders despite not having any official authority.
The PML-N leader’s criticism of the Punjab government comes hours after police raids at the residences of at least a dozen PML-N leaders in the province for their arrest over their alleged involvement in the violence witnessed in the Punjab Assembly during the chief minister’s election on April 16.
However, the lawmakers had managed to evade police and flee to Islamabad, where the PML-N is at the helm of affairs.
The ‘wanted’ PML-N MPAs, apart from Tarar, include his brother Bilal Tarar, the party’s Punjab Secretary General Sardar Awais Leghari, Rana Mashhood, Maryam Nawaz’s close aide Saiful Malook Khokhar, Mirza Javed, Abdur Rauf, Pir Ashraf Rasool, Pir Khizar Hayat Khagga, Raja Sagheer Ahmad, Bilal Farooq, and Rana Manan.
During his media talk today, Tarar, whose house was raided in connection with the April 16 episode for the second time on Friday night, maintained that while PML-N lawmakers were being booked for the provincial assembly attack case, “Parvez Elahi and his companions” were the “actual suspects”.
The PML-N leader also alleged that during last night’s raids, police had “stolen” valuables from the MPAs’ residences.
He also linked the action against his party’s members to the “promotion of an anti-state narrative”, alluding to Gill’s controversial remarks.
Tarar alleged that CM Elahi had “fully facilitated Imran Khan in promoting this anti-state narrative”, adding that Elahi was “at the forefront of exacting revenge from us”.
He went on to claim that Elahi and Moonis had directed jail officials not to hand over Gill to Islamabad police even when the court had approved his remand in police custody.
They had been defying court orders, the PML-N leader added.
Coming back to the action taken against PML-N lawmakers, he said a case should have actually been registered for the beating and torture inflicted on then-PA deputy speaker Dost Mazari during the April 16 session.
“It all started when people pulled the deputy speaker’s hair and subjected him to violence. Are you ready to get arrested?” he questioned, addressing Elahi.
“If any PML-N member is arrested, all of you would also be arrested because you started the violence,” he warned.
He demanded that the CM present proof to corroborate his claim that he was also subjected to violence in the episode, adding that the entire nation had witnessed that the deputy speaker was beaten.
Tarar said the cases registered against PML-N lawmakers in connection with the April 16 session were “fake”.
“What are you avenging?” he questioned, adding that the action taken against the PTI’s members and supporters during the May 25 Azadi March was the government’s “job” and “responsibility”.
“What you were doing was illegal. You tried to create anarchy … It was our responsibility to stop anarchy,” he said.
The PML-N leader vowed to fight the Punjab government’s “fascism and revenge” with determination. “We will take the legal course,” he said, adding that the cases against PML-N MPAs were “fake” and “baseless”.
Tarar also commented that Elahi’s government was being run through a “remote control from Banigala”, a reference to PTI chief Imran Khan’s residence.
PML-N’s Rana Mashhood, who was also present on the occasion, said “a mockery shouldn’t be made out of assemblies” and called for an end to the “politics of laadlas (blue-eyed boys)” — a term PML-N uses for Imran.
He also said the PML-N lawmakers would fight the “daaku raj” (regime of goons) in Punjab and bring it to an end.
