Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dramatic arrest by Pakistan Rangers outside the Islamabad High Court seems to have created ripples in Jammu and Kashmir in India as the erstwhile state’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said “democracy lies in tatters” in political-crisis hit country.
The cricketer-turned-politician was arrested for alleged corruption charges in the Al-Qadir Trust case which is also being linked to his wife Bushra Bibi and two other acquaintances.
Mufti, who was the last chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir before it was converted into a union territory, without naming anyone also took the occasion to take a veiled jibe at India’s current situation in judiciary and media.
“In Pakistan, democracy lies in tatters. Perhaps the only silver lining is an independent judiciary and a fierce media holding the establishment accountable unlike the world’s largest democracies,” she said.
She added: “While political representatives are being arrested on frivolous grounds, the other institutions necessary for check and balance have not been subverted yet”.
PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti has launched many stern attacks against the BJP-led Centre. Post 5 August 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was abrogated, Mufti was among the three chief ministers put behind bars, aside from Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah.
Subsequently, the trio was slapped with the Public Safety Act (PSA) — a law that allows the detention of any individual for up to two years without a trial or charge.
Following her release, Mehbooba Mufti has been launching scathing attacks on the BJP-led central government. In the past, too, she has alleged that the country’s investigation agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation, are being “used” to decimate Opposition.
The PDP chief has claimed that the present dispensation led by BJP was “targeting” those who try to oppose them. She also made a scathing allegation that the country’s Muslims are the first target of the ruling government.
She has reiterated on several occasions that Opposition parties must unite to give a formidable fight to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
