Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Azma Bukhari on Monday refuted claims by PTI leaders that different and unrelated videos were submitted for a forensic report.
Afridi has found himself in the centre of a legal controversy after a forensic report, submitted by the prosecution to the anti-terrorism court in the Radio Pakistan attack case, identified him as one of the suspects seen in the purported video clips of the incident.
“There are two separate videos [of KP CM] and they should not be confused. One of the videos must be from Zaman Park. However, the other one showing [him] vandalising and lighting fire has been deleted [from the social media account],” she said while addressing a press conference in Lahore.
“When KP chief minister realised that an effort to rebellion which he termed as revolution failed, he deleted the videos [of May 9, 2023] from social media. However, the videos remained in the record,” said Bukhari.
She further claimed their destination was the Corps Commander House, located very close to the Radio Pakistan building. However, they were denied entry there, so they entered the state media building, vandalised it, set fire, and destroyed the records there.
In response to the conviction of identified suspects in May 9 cases, she said those involved in cases in Punjab have been convicted and they were serving their sentences in prison. “We don‘t have any political revenge against anyone,” she said, adding the cases on PML-N leadership in PTI’s tenure were politically motivated.
Speaking on the PTI’s call for a wheel-jam strike on February 8, the information minister said they planned a “new programme of anarchy to subjugate the state and make the law subservient to them, which cannot be made possible”.
The report prepared by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) is based on the footage of the ransacking of the Radio Pakistan office in Peshawar after the arrest of ex-prime minister Imran Khan in May 2023. Last month, the court ordered that the clips be sent for examination and a report be submitted.
At the time, the defence had not questioned the relevance or the legitimacy of the footage.
Soon after the details of the report went viral on social media, several PTI leaders stated that these clips didn’t show the Radio Pakistan occurrence, which took place on May 10, 2023, after PTI founder Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad.
