Rana Sanaullah, the interior minister, disproved the army’s involvement and claimed that Imran Khan, the previous prime minister, was behind the drug case against him.
He said in an interview on the programme “Live with Adil Shahzeb” on Wednesday night: “When I was in the opposition, in one of the briefings [in parliament], I complained to [Chief of Army Staff] General [Qamar Javed] Bajwa that a false lawsuit has been licenced against me and he categorically rejected that the army was intervening in this case.Rana Sanaullah proceeded by saying that while out on bail, a representative of the army chief approached him and requested him to fill out an application so the army might look into his case.
I think based on that probe Gen Bajwa acknowledged that it was a mistaken [perception that the army was intervening and influencing the case],” he insisted. “I made an application not only to the army head but also to the chief judge.”
On July 1, 2019, Sanaullah was detained by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Lahore unit as he travelled from Faisalabad to Lahore close to the Ravi Toll Plaza on the highway.
His car allegedly contained 15 kg of heroin, according to the ANF. Five further people, including the PML-N leader’s driver and security guards, were also detained by a special police unit.
In its initial intelligence report, the ANF claimed to have learned that Sanaullah was reportedly involved in narcotics trafficking and was transporting heroin to Lahore.In the interview, the minister claimed that of all things, it was “confirmed” that “Imran was behind all such cases,” regardless of whether it was the Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau, ANF, or other institutions.
The interior minister responded that “nobody but Imran Khan, he is responsible for all of this,” when asked if he was persuaded that the army was behind all acts of political victimisation of the political leadership.
The interior minister claimed that in addition to Khan, Shehryar Khan Afridi, a former state minister for drugs, and Major General Arif Malik, the head of the ANF at the time, were also utilised as pawns in the scheme.
