Interim interior minister Sarfaraz Bugti denied reports of Imran Khan’s mistreatment in jail and also said that no proposal to ban Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is under consideration.

Speaking to Munizae Jahangir in Spotlight, Bugti said that the responsibility for elections lay with the Election Commission and the interim government was only supposed to assist it.

Even in terms of the Senate election, Bugti said that the matter of elections was purely with the ECP. He said that the deadline was 90 days which has already been passed, he said that the delay was due to the need for new delimitations.

He said that the Council of Common Interests had given priority to the delimitations instead of elections. He added that the consensus cannot be developed because the governmetn in place was a ‘selected’ one.

Regarding the provision of level playing field with Imran Khan facing cases, Bugti said that the PTI chief was facing trial so the matter was completely up to the courts.

He added that until now there is no discussion over any sort of ban on the PTI. However, he added that the state was collecting evidence against any incidents that had flouted the law. Without singling out the May 9 riots, Bugti said that the stae was operating as per its mechanism

Bugti said that, as per his knowledge, Imran Khan has not been arrested in the cipher case yet. He clarified that the PTI chief was currently only under arrest in the Toshakhana case.

Regarding the report of Imran Khan’s conditions in jail, Bugti said that the decision to send him to Attock had been made based on his security by the previous government.

He added that there were 4,000 cctv cameras installed in jails across the country. He said that the Punjab government had submitted a report saying that Imran has been given all facilities possible under jail laws including books, bed and washroom construction.

He said that the camera over Imran’s cell in question had been denied by the Punjab government. He said that the camera was covering the corridor but not the washroom.

Bugti added that Imran Khan was regularly meeting his lawyers and that the matter was a ‘petty issue’. However, he said that rules could be subjected to particular security concerns.

He also denied that people with PTI flags were arrested on August 14. He added that he himself had seen people roaming around with the flags.

Regarding, evidence for the events of May 9, Bugti said that it was not the right platform for the details of the cosnpiracy to be revealed.

Bugti added that Arfi Alvi’s revelations could be a personal crisis but did not amount to a constitutional crisis. He said that it was no clear if the president had done so out of negligence or political concerns, but he had not used the right platform.

He added that he had not thought of ordering any inquiry into the matter yet but added that the government had the tools to do it.

Jaranwala incident

Bugti added that whatever had happened in Jaranwala was against Pakistan’s traditions and Islam’s teachings.

He added that Pakistan would have to divorce itself from the perpetrators as a society. He added that a thorough investigation was under way. He said that two people had been arrested initially, but it had later been realised that they were not the main accused.

He added that the incidents were 100% planned and the evidence was slowly coming to light and will eventually be shared.

Bugti said that the morale of the Punjab police had suffered after the Model Town incident and the Sahiwal incident and it engaged differently with law and order situations since then.

He added that the mob had spiralled to 6,000 people and a minimum of 15,000 officials were needed to contain it.

Imaan Mazari arrest

Reagrding the sections of Dacoity being inserted into Imaan Mazari’s FIR, Bugti said he had not read the FIR and arrests on all sorts of charges were a normal police practice throughout the country.

He added that the systems in Pakistan are ‘working’ and that anyone who raised slogans against the state institutions and breached certain limits, they would be arrested.