Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday said thousands of people facing trials for years wished to hear reassuring words like “good to see you” in courtrooms.

“Judicial bias” was evident particularly in high-profile cases as the above words could be heard in the courtrooms only for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman (PTI) Imran Khan, on whose order arson, vandalism and attacks on military installments, and public and private properties were planned and carried out on May 9, she said while addressing a news conference.

Ironically, she said, no leader of the PTI, including Imran Khan, condemned the tragic events and even the instructions of the Chief Justice of Pakistan were also ignored in that regard. The entire political career of Imran Khan, she said, “is based on creating chaos and anarchy, mischief, conspiracies and enmity towards the country,” the minister remarked.

Marriyum said despite the fact that the entire nation fully knew about the track record of Imran Khan, he still had the audacity to blame the intelligence agencies for what “his party goons” had done on his own instructions.

She said every Pakistani citizen was upset over the violence and arson by the PTI protesters.

The minister recalled that during Imran Khan-led 2014 sit-in, the PTI activists dug graves at the D-Chowk, hung dirty clothes on the boundary walls of the Supreme Court, and attacked the building of Pakistan Television, and all the more it was appreciated by the PTI chairman and other top party leadership. “If Imran Khan had been taken to task in the PTV’s attack case, such incidents would not have happened today,” she added. As regards the May 9 attacks, the minister asked whether the PTI leaders including Murad Saeed and Yasmin Rashid, who were issuing instructions to the workers to further disrupt law and order, were agents of the secret agencies. Similarly, she said, Imran Khan during his presence in the Islamabad High Court stated that if he was arrested again, there would be more strong reaction than May 9.

The minister pointed out that while Imran Khan was the prime minister, he used to do the same thing. If anyone questioned him, either their ribs were broken or they were thrown into the death cells of prisons, she added.

Lambasting the PTI, she said what the enemy could not do in 75 years, its workers had done on May 9, who even attacked the General Headquarters.

She recalled that after the Lasbela helicopter crash, in which the Pakistan Army officers were martyred, a campaign was launched against them from the PTI’s social media official accounts. Similarly, she said, the PTI gangsters attacked the memorials of armed forces martyrs, which hurt the sentiments of their loved ones. Referring to the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s sit-in on Monday, she said the patriotic parties of Pakistan gave a peaceful political response and the nation had witnessed that on the Shahrah-e-Dastur.

It was a public reaction yesterday, but not even a flower pot was broken, she added. Reacting to Imran Khan’s claims of having proof of agencies’ involvement in the May 9 incidents, she said had he any evidence, then why he had not presented them in court so far. She said Imran Khan during his government resorted to political victimization of the opposition and put his political opponents in jails in fake cases. The minister said important buildings, including the Governor House, were in the vicinity of the Jinnah House, but only the latter burnt by the rioters which was highly questionable. No relief could be given to those who burnt the country, she said, adding,”Imran Khan is a liar and a fraud, who cannot befool over 220 million population of Pakistan.”

The minister also played the leaked audios of PTI leaders Murad Saeed, Sheikh Imtiaz, Ali Chaudhry, Chaudhry Ejaz, Sagheer Waraich, Khawaja Tariq Rahim, Ejaz Minhas, Yasmin Rashid and Ibad Farooq.