ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was trying to divert public’s attention from his foreign funding and Tosha Khana case by playing a ‘toxic game’ against the state institutions which included a “despicable” social media campaign against the military martyrs.
“Imran Khan cannot divert the attention of the nation from foreign funding which was used to weaken the country’s defense. Foreign agent Imran Khan submitted false affidavits with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for five years,” the minister said while addressing a press conference here.
Castigating Imran Khan, she said that for four years, the country was ruled by an “incompetent” and “inefficient” Prime Minister, who plundered national resources ruthlessly and deprived the people of job opportunities by implementing bad and anti-poor policies. She said the PTI had been declared foreign-aided party by the ECP for receiving funding from foreigners during a period of five years (2008 to 2013).
According to the ECP’s verdict, she said the PTI received prohibited funding from 351 foreign companies and 34 foreign nationals.
“Imran Khan has also taken prohibited funding from companies in Pakistan which was undeclared,” she maintained.
She said as Imran Khan had disgraced the PTI, it was high time for the workers to ask him why he turned it into a foreign-aided party. She said the investigation of the funding received by the PTI from foreign nationals after 2013 was yet to be done. However, the FIA was investigating the source and utilization of the funding received during the said period.
The minister lashed out at Imran Khan for implementing a conspiracy to damage the country in exchange of the foreign funds. As regards the PTI’s social media campaign against the state institutions, she said Imran Khan ran a “dirty drive” against the martyrs of helicopter crash through his trolls.
Marriyum said Imran Khan’s Chief of Staff read an “obnoxious transcript” on ARY News channel which was authored by Imran Khan himself.
“Red lines were crossed in this transcript as they (PTI leadership) had planned to incite rebellion in the Armed Forces of Pakistan”, she said.
The minister said the ARY news channel allowed Shahbaz Gill to read that script for an uninterrupted 15 minutes. She opined that Imran Khan was fully aware that he had been caught while doing foreign funding and the PTI was declared a foreign-funded party. Genuine PTI workers today were very angry by this tag.
The minister said that yesterday when Imran Khan was hurling allegations on others, he should have told how much money he took from the foreigners. She said that Arif Naqvi was Imran Khan’s front man who collected funds in the name of charity which were used by Imran for political purposes.
She said that four employees of PTI Secretariat namely Tahir Iqbal, Mohammad Arshad, Nauman Afzal and Mohammad Rafiq had recorded their statements and disclosed that blank cheques were taken from them and they had no idea where this foreign funding came from and where it was spent.
The minister asked whether the money taken from 351 companies was spent on making a compromise on the Kashmir, destroying the country’s economy, rendering the youth jobless, committing robberies in the country and weakening the country’s defense.
The minister said that due to Imran’s policies Pakistan’s relations with many friendly countries turned sour. She said when foreign funding money had been seized, now the PTI leadership was making efforts to create chaos and anarchy in the country and a conspiracy was hatched to create rift among the national institutions.
She said that Imran Khan could not compare himself with Nawaz Sharif who made this country a nuclear power, launched game-changing mega project CPEC and strengthened the defense of the country. Nawaz Sharif, like Imran Khan, did not give mutiny call the armed forces rank and file, and never tried to create rift among institutions, she added.
She said that Nawaz Sharif was one of the builders of Pakistan, who raised the slogan of upholding the constitution in the country, and for giving respect to the vote, whereas Imran Khan sought intervention of the state institutions to save his government. Imran Khan, she said forced the personalities at the constitutional positions to violate the Constitution.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said Imran Khan registered false cases against Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Muslim League (N) leadership, the family members of the opposition leaders including their sisters and daughters while being into the power. She recalled that Imran Khan blackmailed the then NAB Chairman and used him for settling political scores with his opponents. She said Tayyaba Gul was abducted and brought the Prime Minister’s House so that she would provide evidence against the ex-chairman NAB.
After blackmailing the then NAB chairman, he formed “NAB-Niazi nexus” to fix political opponents. Imran Khan sent cases to National Crime Agency of UK but could not prove the corruption of a single penny against the Sharif family, she maintained. She said Imran Khan was misleading the youngsters who should know how he had looted the nation by selling gifts from Tosha Khana. She said that Imran Khan did not declare the gifts he took as Prime Minister.
He took gifts from Tosha Khana and sold them in the market and after one year he changed the policy of Tosha Khana to 20% and accordingly deposited the money in the treasury. The minister said if Imran’s hands were clean, he should provide the receipts. Marriyum said that all those who conspired and damaged the country would be brought to justice. She said that people were quitting the PTI after the ECP decision in which it had been declared as a foreign-aided party.
The minister said Imran Khan incited his people to raise slogans at the holy place of Masjid Nabavi, now those people had been sentenced to 10 year prison terms.
