Daily Times

Those who are condemning the PTI leaders’ arrest today were silent yesterday when the PML-N leaders were being maltreated by the then political leadership, said Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif while speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly.

In response to a point raised by GDA member Dr Fehmida Mirza regarding the PTI’s leaders arrest by the government, Khawaja Asif said, “This is a colorful condemnation” which, he added, should stop now and a serious and actual politics should be done. Without mentioning the name of Dr Mirza, Khawaja Asif said, “Everyone is allowed to show sympathies for their choice but the standard should not vary”. “Why this consciousnesses was slumbering when the whole row of this house (belonging to PML-N) had been victimized in the past?” he asked and recalled the arrest of opposition MNAs from the Parliament Lodges a couple of months back. The defence minister repeatedly attacked Dr Mirza but without calling her name saying, “I never changed my loyalties with my party; I never used Asif Ali Zardari’s name. The PPP also gave her honor and (she) should regard this,” he said. Referring to Imran Khan’s call for the “Azadi March”, the minister said, “We would never allow the writ of state to be compromised” and warned that if someone broke the law and the constitution, they would be strictly tackled.

Without mentioning former interior minister Sheikh Rashid’s name, the defence minister said if a political worker belonging to Rawalpindi repeated the same language as their leader, then they negate their political identity. “A political worker does not use words such as jalao gherao (vandalism),” he narrated. Earlier in her address, Dr Mirza said that ‘they never learnt from the past’. “Political leaders and their families were harassed by the government which is highly condemnable,” she regretted. “You made them successful by such useless steps,” she maintained.