Rana Abrar made these remarks during an appearance on journalist Shahzeb Khanzada's television show on Friday, where he revealed what it was like after he submitted his first Right of Access To Information (RTI) on November 23, 2020.
As per the Right of Access To Information Act of 2017, the government is required to make the desired information public within 10 days of receiving the RTI. However, when the then-PTI government refused, Abrar approached the Pakistan Information Commission to appeal to it, and won the case.
When the government still showed reluctance in revealing the information, that is when he says the high courts got involved, and the issue got highlighted in the media. The PTI government had claimed that disclosing the contents of the Toshakhana would jeopardise international relations.
Abrar claims that during this time he was constantly intimidated and threatened by the PTI, who got him fired from two jobs. "At my second job, the CEO called me into his office on the third day and told me that he had no choice but to let me go because he could not afford to keep me any longer," he said, adding that to this day he has trouble finding work at newspapers or TV channels because the PTI makes sure he won't get hired anywhere else.
He also said that he was constantly followed everywhere he went, and that the then-PTI government also sent people to his house who threatened his elderly mother and told her that very soon a dead body would show up at the house if he did not back off.