ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said on Saturday that the government would take immediate action against individuals using derogatory language against the army and other state institutions.
"Any man using defamatory language against the army while I am running the ministry will be booked within 72 hours," he warned.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of the country's leading opposition parties, has openly accused the country's defense and security establishment of manipulating the political process and bringing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration to power.
The top PDM leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, on Friday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign by the end of the month, adding that the anti-government coalition was ready to stage a "long march" in the coming weeks and could even decide to go to the garrison city of Rawalpindi instead of the seat of the civilian government in Islamabad.
However, the interior minister dismissed the threat, saying that Rehman had already failed politically.
Rasheed also maintained that the opposition alliance had been "brought down to its knees" by one of its own constituent parties that had decided not to resign from the national and provincial assemblies before the upcoming Senate elections.
Referring to the Pakistan People Party chairman, he said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had played his cards well by presenting the alternative opinion on the resignation issue and declining to follow the PDM's confrontational strategy.
The interior minister said that the PDM had already "conceded defeat" by announcing its decision to contest the upcoming by-elections.
Asked about the opposition's decision regarding the long march, he said the government would not stop anyone from conducting political activities within the legal and constitutional parameters.
