'Make an example of PTI': Fazl demands swift action against Imran after ECP's funding verdict
Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday called for swift proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan and his party, demanding that the "PTI should be made an example of".
"Whether it is Imran Khan or Dr Arif Alvi, [they] should immediately resign from the party because they have proven to be criminals," he said in a press conference that followed a meeting of the PDM leadership at the Prime Minister's House today.
Fazl's comments come a day after the Election Commission of Pakistan, in its much-anticipated verdict, ruled that PTI had "wilfully" and "knowingly" received prohibited funding — which include a number of foreign donors.
In its order, the commission also said that it was "constrained to hold that Imran Khan failed to discharge his obligations as mandated under the Pakistani statutes".
The PDM chief said that all the political parties had decided to initiate action against Imran and his party as they were now "proven criminals".
He demanded that PTI officeholders should also be immediately arrested.
The JUI-F leader said that for eight years, Imran tried to "run away" from the ECP by levelling accusations against the institution and its chief.
"He blackmailed the ECP but the reality is that the commission is an [independent] institution and it can't falsify the facts," he stated.
Imran and his supporters have on multiple occasions cast aspersions on the ECP and its Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, accusing the body and its leader of bias.
"The verdict has proved that he is an incompetent leader. All these years the PTI submitted false certificates and declarations in the ECP which is a violation of the Constitution.
"But today, we have reached the stage where it is now clear that he backed a foreign agenda and tried to harm Pakistan," he claimed.
The verdict, Fazl continued, showed that Imran was a "foreign puppet who was brought into politics as [part of] a foreign agenda".
"He took help from Israel and India [...] today all these facts have been unearthed. His fundraisers had links to Israel, India, Denmark, Canada, Finland and many other countries."
Fazl added that during today's meeting, the government and its allies had agreed that the "matter of the state's security" was the utmost priority and stressed that all the "institutions and powers" should work as one to protect the country.
Such "criminal elements", he said, should be "uprooted from the country's history and be made an example for the upcoming generations".