Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Rana Sanaullah, the interior minister, said that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was behind the drug case against him. He said that the army was not to blame.
“When I was in the opposition, I told [Chief of Army Staff] General [Qamar Javed] Bajwa in one of the briefings [in parliament] that a false case had been filed against me. He categorically denied that the army was getting involved in this case,” he said in an interview.
Sanaullah went on to say that when he was out on bail, someone who worked for the army chief met him and told him that the army would look into his case if he filled out an application.
“I sent an application to both the army chief and the chief justice,” he said. “Based on that inquiry, I think Gen Bajwa said that the idea that the army was getting involved and trying to change the case was wrong.”
On July 1, 2019, a team from the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in Lahore caught Sanaullah as he drove from Faisalabad to Lahore near the Ravi Toll Plaza on the highway.
The ANF said that they had found 15 kilograms of heroin in his car. Five other people, including the driver and security guards of the PML-N leader, were also taken into custody by a special team of the force.
In the first information report that the ANF filed, they said they had heard that Sanaullah was involved in drug smuggling and was bringing heroin to Lahore.
In the interview, the minister said that one thing is “proven that Imran was behind all of these cases,” whether they were investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, the ANF, or other organizations.
When asked if he was sure that the army was behind all of the cases of political leaders being hurt by the army, the interior minister said, “Nobody but Imran Khan is responsible for all of this.”
The interior minister also said that Khan, the former state minister for drugs Shehryar Khan Afridi, and the then-head of the ANF, Major General Arif Malik, were all used in the case.
Shahbaz Gill says he was tortured
Sanaullah said that the claims that PTI leader Shahbaz Gill was tortured were a “drama” meant to draw attention away from the PTI’s social media campaign after the Lasbela incident.
“Gill’s whole statement was set up by Imran, and every word was carefully chosen since no one can talk for 12 minutes without having written text. Also, Fawad Chaudhry was going to be on TV next,” he said, adding that there was “credible evidence” against Gill.
Sanaullah said that the satellite phone found in Gill’s room at the Parliament Lodges had some numbers that were supposedly from India and the United States and that there was constant communication with them.
He said that people were making a big deal out of the supposed return of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat. “TTP has neither the ability nor the position to fight an organized army,” he said, adding that all the news about their return was “propaganda.”
