PM displeased with sedition case against Sharif, says Fawad | The Express Tribune

Prime Minister Imran Khan is not aware of the sedition case registered against Nawaz Sharif and some of his top political aides in a Lahore police station, according to the sci-tech minister.

The FIR – registered at Shahdara police station by a citizen – states that Sharif has “conspired against the state and state institutions” by making provocative speeches from London.

“The prime minister was not aware when I brought into his notice that an FIR has been registered [in Lahore] in which Nawaz Sharif and others have been nominated,” Fawad Chaudhry, the federal minister for science and technology, said in a series of tweets. “He [Imran Khan] expressed strong displeasure. Let’s see what happens,” he added.

The minister further said that it was not the policy of the PTI to file sedition cases as it was a political party. He called it a legacy of the Sharif era. “We still have moves to play on the political chessboard. The PML-N should save its pawns because the king and the queen cannot be dragged into the game too soon,” he wrote in another tweet.

“The game has just begun. No need to hurry,” he added.

Sections 120 A and B; 121 A and B, 123 A and B and 124 A and B had been imposed, among other provisions in the aforementioned FIR.

The text of the FIR stated that Nawaz had conspired against Pakistan’s prestigious institutions by making provocative speeches while being in London. The purpose of those speeches was to declare Pakistan a ‘state of hooligans’, the complainant claimed.

Among some prominent PML-N leaders nominated in the FIR were Maryam Nawaz, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Zubair, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Saira Afzal Tarrar and others.

Case being registered against Nawaz at a time when the former prime minister— who left for London late last year after securing bail for medical treatment in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case and the Al Azizia reference — has been targeting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government as well as many state institutions including judiciary and the military.

Nawaz, the three-time prime minister, broke his long silence during the PPP-hosted multiparty conference on September 20, taking his ‘vote ko izzat dau’ mantra to the next level by declaring that the opposition was up not against Prime Minister Imran Khan but against those who had brought him into power in the 2018 elections.

The PML-N supreme leader pledged that his party would endorse whatever course of action the grand huddle decided.

On Thursday, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) banned broadcast and rebroadcast of any speech, interview or public address of absconders or proclaimed offenders.