New Delhi: Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) ‘Prime Minister’ Raja Farooq Haider, along with former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and several other leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has been booked in a sedition case.
The case was registered Monday against Haider and other leaders, including Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz, former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, who attended the party’s meetings addressed by Sharif from London via a video link last week.
This is the first time a Kashmiri has been booked for sedition in Pakistan.
In a tweet Sunday, Haider said that as an “anti-India Kashmiri”, he is worried about his future now.
Indian PM NarendraModi must b feeling elated coz almost entire Pakistan has become his "agent"-thanks to the small-minded bigots who've least realisation of the repercussions of their parish-pump & hate-filled politics.
As an anti-India Kashmiri, I’m worried about my future now.
— Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan (@farooq_pm) October 4, 2020
What the FIR says
The case was registered by one Badar Rasheed, a citizen of Pakistan, under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, claiming conspiracy by the leaders to wage war against the country.
The FIR says that during his speeches at the party meetings via video conference, Sharif supported the policies of India so that Pakistan continues to remain on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey list’. Haider was also allegedly present during the meeting, the FIR says.
The applicant also said that the aim of Sharif’s speeches was to “divert attention from human rights violations in occupied Kashmir to benefit Nawaz’s ‘friend’ — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Responding to a tweet, Pakistan’s Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said Imran Khan has expressed displeasure over the registration of the case.
وزیر اعظم کو اس FIR کا کوئ علم نہیں تھا جب میں ان کے علم میں لایا کہ اس طرح ایک FIR ہوئ ہے جس میں نواز شریف اور دیگر لوگوں کو نامزد کیا گیا ہے انھوں نے شدید ناپسندیدگی کا ااظہار کیا ، ہو سکتا ہے کسی نے کاروائ ڈالنے کیلئے ایسا کیا ہو دیکھتے ہیں۔ https://t.co/uZYnwX2FCR
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) October 5, 2020
In 2017, Haider was also summoned by the Azad J&K Legislative Assembly’s Secretariat when he addressed a joint presser with Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman at Islamabad after Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court.
Haider had said that “if this is the Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal dreamed of, I will have to re-think, as a Kashmiri, if I should annex my fate with this country”.
Also read: Pakistan’s ‘upgrade’ of Gilgit-Baltistan is linked to the India-China stand-off