Rawalpindi: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Sunday said “People who utter bad words against this great army should have their tongues pulled out,”.
Addressing a ceremony in Rawalpindi, He referred to four soldiers who were martyred in a terrorist attack on an army check post in South Waziristan on Thursday night, saying that they gave their lives for Pakistan. “People who utter bad words against this great army should have their tongues pulled out,” he added.
The interior minister termed frequent martyrdoms of soldiers in terrorist attacks “a plot to destabilise the country from within”.
Rashid said the country had “nearly gotten out” of the coronavirus pandemic and gave credit for bringing the situation under control to Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Army, who he said had done “jihad against Covid-19”.
“India knows that if it comes to Pakistan’s borders, 200 million people would think it a matter of pride to give their lives along with the army’s soldiers.”
Rashid said those who had opposed the creation of Pakistan were “trying to create chaos and political destablisation”. He said he was saddened especially by the PML-N whose leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has criticised the security establishment in recent speeches.
“No PML-N member can say anything against army. If he does, he is not a [member of the Muslim League].”
PDM’s long march
Talking about the 10-party opposition alliance — Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) — long march to Islamabad on February 26, the interior minister said they would be ‘welcomed’ if they followed the law and the Constitution.
“I want to tell the whole PDM that if you [remain] within the limits during the long march here, there will be no problem, no obstacle. If you want to come to Islamabad while remaining within the limits of the law, come 10 times because you will have to return. You do not have the strength.”
Referring to the PTI’s 126-day long sit-in in 2014, he termed it “the most difficult thing I have done in my life”.
In an apparent warning to the opposition, Rashid said that if the PDM came to Islamabad but did not remain within the limits of the law and the Constitution, then “Islamabad will be Islamabad [and] do not say you were not told.”
Answering a question about the upcoming Senate elections, Rashid said that whether the elections were held through secret voting or open ballot, “bikne wale bikte hain (those who are ready to be bought will sell their votes)”, adding that there was no place in the country for those who sold their votes or spewed nonsense.
