ISLAMABAD - The government will support the formation of a three-judge commission to investigate the election rigging allegations and will have no objection if the proposed body sought assistance from the ISI and MI representatives to reach the bottom of the matter, a senior federal minister who is also a relative of the prime minister said on Tuesday.
Ishaq Dar said in a TV interview that the law ministry had written a letter to the Supreme Court registrar for the constitution of the commission. Now, he said, it was for the apex court, not the govt, to set up an investigation team, even if they comprised representatives of the ISI and MI.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan has been demanding the setting up of the judicial commission for quite some time and the failure of the government to get it constituted is one of the important reasons of confrontation between the two parties.
Replying to a question, the minister said of the five points agreed upon with the PTI, the government was already working on three and a half points. However, he did not identify them.
Refuting the PTI chief’s allegation that the Intelligence Bureau had distributed Rs 2,700 million to journalists to use them in support of the government, the minister claimed that all secret funds previously available to 32 institutions had been withdrawn. As for a couple of other institutions which still had these funds at their disposal, he said he was willing to share the information about such funds provided Imran Khan gave an undertaking that he would not make the information public.
He took exception to money laundering charge levelled against him by the PTI chairman. He said he was ready to sit with Imran Khan and prove that the allegation was baseless.
He said the former cricket hero was crossing all limits, which would not be tolerated any more.
Advising the PTI chairman to control his tongue, Ishaq Dar said in case he did not, “I’ll bring many things against him before public. I know too much about him”.
Now there will be an open war against him, said the finance minister. According to Dar, Imran Khan is behaving like a street man, not a political leader.
He alleged that the PTI chairman was the father of an illegitimate child from Sita White.
Mr Khan, he said, had been waiting for donations for hours outside the offices of the very institution he accused of involvement in money laundering.
As for his statement against the Sharifs during the Musharraf era, Dar said it was made under duress, which was not admissible under law.