LAHORE: Former interior minister Rana Sanaullah during an appearance on TV said, “Voting for Gen Bajwa’s extension [in 2020] was a tactical move by the party to fight the fitna (anarchy),” using a term he frequently employs to refer to the PTI chief.

This was Mr Sanaullah’s second outburst against the former top brass in as many days. A day earlier, he had assailed former generals Bajwa and Faiz Hameed, declaring them “national criminals” and demanded action against them. “The way the PML-N brought Gen Pervez Musharraf to justice, it will do the same to [both men],” he had said on Wednesday.

He had also reinforced party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s recent statement, seeking ‘strict accountability’ of former generals and judges, saying that it was a policy statement on behalf of the party.

In an online address to party ticket holders in Lahore a couple of days ago, the elder Sharif had said: “(Former) chief justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa were tools of former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and his spy chief Gen Faiz Hameed. Their crime is bigger than a murder offence. Pardoning them will be an injustice to the nation. They don’t deserve a pardon.”

However, it should be noted that on the same day, the elder Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz had tried to walk back some of the venom in her father’s comments by saying that “neither he nor she believed in taking revenge”.

Sources said that the party supremo had told the leaders to adopt “an aggressive stance” against both Gen Bajwa and Gen Hameed and some former and incumbent judges.

Meanwhile, a leader from the Shehbaz camp said that after Mr Nawaz’s outburst, some quarters advised the party not to take an extreme position on the matter. Mr Shehbaz, who left for London on Wednesday, might talk to his brother and convince him to dilute his tone