ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab on Wednesday dismissed the alleged rape incident of a Lahore college student as a “lie,” accusing former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of using it to incite students and create unrest in the province.
Hundreds of students on Monday and Tuesday staged protests over the reported rape of a student of a private college in Lahore, forcing the closure of one of the campuses while police and provincial government officials denied the incident took place.
The incident was first reported on social media over the weekend, with varying accounts stating the rape took place on Thursday or Friday evening in the basement of a Punjab College for Women campus in Lahore. Police said no victim had come forward to file a complaint and the college dismissed the allegations as “false.” Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz formed a committee on Tuesday to investigate the alleged rape following clashes between police and students this week.
“An issue was made out of nothing and a lie was spread about an event that didn’t even take place,” Sharif said in a press conference on Wednesday. “A movement or chaos was created by provoking students and inciting them by leading them astray. This campaign was based on lies.”
Sharif said a college student whose name was being used as the rape victim, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital on Oct. 2 after she fell at home and suffered injuries.
“Her mother was in such a distressed condition, she told me it was my responsibility to expose those who spread this lie and hold them accountable,” Sharif said, adding that the story was spread on social media by students and journalists who were biased in favor of the PTI.
She described the entire incident as a “disgusting and dangerous conspiracy” concocted by the PTI at a time when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was taking place in Pakistan.
“There is this one party, [Pakistan] Tehreek-e-Insaf, whom I call a terrorist party, and their agenda is that when Pakistan is progressing, they regress,” she said. “So we went to the bottom of a story and conspiracy that they crafted, we took out its minutest details. They used children.”
The chief minister said social media accounts linked to PTI supporters were responsible for spreading the “false” rape allegations, urging Pakistan’s high courts and their judges to take action against those who spread the false news.
“I would request them that this concerns everyone’s children, their lives and honor,” Nawaz said. “Please ensure they do not flee from this, all those against whom there is irrefutable evidence.”
