Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Wednesday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan should fully explain the real motives, prior to a long march to federal capital.

She put up a formal challenge to the PTI leader to first answer her pertinent questions, and then give a date for the long march.

In a statement, the minister asked why ‘the foreign agent’, playing with national security, was bent upon destabilizing the democratic system in the country. She said it was unfortunate that the PTI chairman was busy in making preparations for the long march, but alas he had no time to help the flood victims.

The minister said that Imran Khan, who ruined national economy with record loans worth over Rs20,000 billion, was threatening to march towards the federal capital. She questioned why “the foreign agent conspiring to bankrupt Pakistan’s economy” was coming to Islamabad.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the “foreign agent” had rendered 9.5 million people unemployed and pushed over 20 million people into abject poverty. “What he would do after coming to Islamabad,” she questioned.

She asked why the person, who threatened the judiciary and judges and ridiculed national institutions and dragged them into politics, was planning for a long march to federal capital. She claimed that Imran Khan had a compromise on Kashmir in his tenure, and now he was trying to destabilize the system in the country. Terming Imran Khan “thief of Tosha Khana and partner in corruption of Farah Gogi and Peerni”, she asked why he was planning for a long march. The minister advised Imran to answer these questions first and then announce long march to the federal capital.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik lambasted Imran Khan for taking oath, in Nazi style, from his workers for the Hqaeeqi Azad movement.

“Imran Khan opted for Hitler style in taking oath from his workers at a gathering. How can such a person be called Sadiq and Amin,” the minister said while addressing a news conference. He said ironically, the person (Imran Khan), who was involved in mega corruption scandals like that of Malam Jabba, was declared “Sadiq and “Amin”. “I asked the people today how can a person, who grabbed 450 acres of land from a business tycoon to facilitate him in saving billions of rupees, be called Sadiq and Amin,” he said.

Musadik said the leaked audio of Imran Khan had affirmed that he could not be trusted with the state secrets. The minister said Imran Khan was bent upon weakening the country economically and politically and his leaked audios were the living proof that he even manipulated the cipher to achieve his political motives and that too at the cost of national interests. To a query, he said the action against Imran Khan would be initiated in accordance with the law, and ruled out political victimization of opponents under the leadership of Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif. Musadik also defended the acquittal of Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield case, and said the National Accountability Bureau failed to produce a single piece of evidence in the court of law.