Pervaiz Rashid was ‘sacrificed’ to protect the powerful: Aitzaz Ahsan

LAHORE: Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan said on Monday Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid was ‘sacrificed’ over the ‘planted story’ controversy to protect the powerful.

Talking to the media at the occasion of Supreme Court Bar elections, Aitzaz Ahsan alleged that PML-N always targets the weak, adding that Senator Mushahid ullah had also been made a ‘sacrificial lamb’ in the past.

The opposition leader said that talks about national security mostly happen during PML-N’s regime.

“Pervaiz Rashid fell victim to the ‘national security’ matter,” he said, adding that PPP had never arrested anyone under the banner of national security.

Ahsan said that real action should be taken against the one who had leaked the information.

On the issue of Panama Papers, he said that all those whose names are mentioned in the leaks should be held accountable.

Ahsan alleged that the year Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had given zero tax was when he had bought property worth billions. “The prime minister should be held accountable according to our TORs,” he said.

Asked about blockades on the roads leading to Islamabad, Ahsan said that “saving their rulership is more important to the Sharif regime than national interest.”

On October 29, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took back the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage from Pervaiz Rashid, weeks after the military’s top commanders said a ‘false and fabricated’ newspaper report breached national security.

"The planted story related to the NSC and NAP meeting published in Daily Dawn on 6th October was a breach of national security. Evidence available so far points to a lapse on part of Information Minister, who has been directed to step down from office to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry," the statement from PM House had read.