Treason case filed against Nawaz Sharif, PML-N leaders

ISLAMABAD: A treason case has been filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and other Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders over provocative speeches and incitement against the state.

The case has been filed in Lahore’s Shahdara police station against PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and other leaders including Ayaz Sadiq, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pervaiz Rashid, Khawaja Asif, Rana Sanaullah, and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra have also been included in the case.

The FIR stated that Nawaz Sharif is a convict and the law of Pakistan doesn’t allow him to carry out such kinds of speeches. The complainant states that Nawaz has several corruption cases against him that are currently under trial in the courts.

He alleges the former premier supported the policies of India in his recent speeches so that Pakistan would continue to remain on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list.

The complaint said the main purpose of Nawaz Sharif’s speeches is to isolate Pakistan in front of the international community and declare it a rogue state. He said Nawaz is trying to turn the people against the democratically elected government.

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The Islamabad High Court has reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a plea seeking a ban on Nawaz Sharif’s speeches. The petition states that Nawaz has started actively participating in politics and has initiated a smear campaign against state institutions.

Earlier, the spokesperson of PML-N Marriyum Aurangzeb had said that the person who made his country a nuclear power is being called a traitor. She said that foreign nationals were calling Nawaz Sharif a traitor, and the statement of calling a political opponent a traitor had failed in every era.

The PML-N spokesperson said that an organized and incompetent gang is currently dominating the country, a gang that puts political opponents in jails, she maintained.