LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Thursday that nothing had changed despite a day or two of speculation that something was about to happen, adding that anyone with a legal right would receive it.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency’s office in Lahore, Naqvi was asked about recent speculation concerning the PTI and its founder, Imran Khan.
“For the past day or two I have been hearing that who knows what is going to happen,” he said. “Such news is good for two or three days, but whoever has a legal right will get it. However, all matters are as before; nothing has changed.”
He did not elaborate. Earlier on Thursday, Imran Khan’s sisters Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan were released from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail after seven weeks, and his lawyers said this week that his blood pressure had been fluctuating.
Not only Fazl
Naqvi also rejected suggestions that the government was singling out Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, over notices issued in Islamabad. “The notices have not been issued only to Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Notices have been issued to five to six thousand people. We are not targeting any one person,” he said.
He said the drive against the illegal occupation of state land in the capital had been under discussion for four to five months, that valuable land in Islamabad had been occupied on a large scale in the past, and that those served with notices could seek legal remedies.
Earlier this month the Capital Development Authority served notices on seminaries in Islamabad run by Fazl’s party, saying structures had been built without approved plans and warning of legal action. JUI-F leaders have described the government’s actions as political pressure, while ministers say the authority is enforcing building rules without bias.
Fazl, who has also accused the government of considering a reversal of the former tribal areas’ merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been at odds with the government for weeks.
