“The cell has planned to raise the issue of my plaza in a forceful way to push me to resign,” the law minister said.—Photo by APP

Talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly on Friday, the minister alleged that a cell set up in the Governor's House was engaged in maligning him under the cover of his 'illegal' plaza. The cell had also collected his 10-year income tax record to further its 'vilification' drive, he said.

Urging the media not to become a part of the conspiracy, Rana Sana regretted that a TV channel had again raised the issue of torture of a Faisalabad businessman allegedly by his (minister's) supporters.

He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had, during a visit to Faisalabad, given audience to trader Mian Idrees and ordered a probe into the matter by a deputy inspector-general level officer.

The inquiry report, Sana claimed, found that the alleged torturers of Idrees had no connection with him.

Referring to a recent statement of Governor Salmaan Taseer that there should be one law for Rana Sana and Shamaila Rana (a PML-N MPA who resigned on fraud charges), the minister said the governor had been campaigning for imposing a fine on illegal plaza owners instead of demolishing the constructions, but he was seeking more than fine (resignation) in his plaza case.

“The cell has planned to raise the issue of my plaza in a forceful way to push me to resign,” the law minister said.

Governor's media adviser Farrukh Shah said the minister should prove his innocence in the court of masses and 'have patience instead of pelting others with stones while sitting in a glasshouse'.

He asked which cells had, so far, been spitting venom against the governor. “Whether these are located at 90-Shahrah-i-Quaid-i-Azam, 7-Club Road or at any other place meant to serve as CM's Secretariat?” he said.

He lamented that Rana Sana's plaza issue had been raised by architect Khalid Abdur Rahman and others, but the governor was being blamed for this 'sin' too.

He declared that “there'll be no more friendly fire, now there'll be a direct political firing”, implying that the Governor's House from now on won't show 'restraint' and will pay in the same coin.