Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday mocked the PTI Chairman Imran Khan for talking about media freedom, terming it “not less than a joke”.

Recalling that during PTI’s tenure journalists were tortured and programmes were suspended, the information minister accused him of “misleading the nation.” She was speaking to the media in Islamabad.

She also criticized the kidnapping and assault of journalists during the PTI’s tenure. The minister said that the PTI government introduced ‘black laws’ and put the media under censorship. Marriyum said that the enemy of media (Imran Khan) who was what she called “economic murderer” of the media should feel ashamed on conducting the media seminar. She pointed out that International Media Watch had called Imran Khan a fascist and in four years of Imran Khan rule, the ribs of journalists were broken, they were kidnapped, the freedom of the media was crushed and the parliament was locked. She said that Imran Khan who controlled media through NAB also made media workers jobless.

About Shahbaz Gill, Marriyum said that the person who mocked the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s illness was now lying in a hospital to avert arrest.

She said that Imran Khan always calls for bringing the powerful people under the law, asking why he created hurdles in the handover of Shahbaz Gill from Adiala Jail to Islamabad Police. The minister claimed that a ‘very big account’ has been detected during the probe into foreign funding received by the PTI. She said she would disclose its details in a press conference today (Friday).

The minister said that the PTI leaders not appearing before Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the prohibited funding probe should be arrested. “If Khan Sahib doesn’t appear too . . Listen! Interior Minister is Rana Sanaullah,” she warned, advising Imran Khan to share the record of ‘foreign funding’ received by his party with the FIA. Marriyum Aurangzeb also took a dig at Imran Khan for cancelling his visit to Karachi yet again due to rain forecast, saying it was the ‘Islamic touch’ which in fact forbade his visit to the flood-hit areas.

The minister, in a tweet, lashed out at Imran Khan for doing politics at almost everything, including COVID-19, Medina state, accountability, and flood affected people. “He [Imran] can visit every place of the country to spread chaos and anarchy, but not visiting the flood-hit areas to meet the affected people because Bushra Bibi has barred him due to ‘Islamic touch’,” she added to her tweet.