Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday alleged that the media faced the worst fascism during the four-year rule of Imran Khan, who himself had been declared “fascist” by the international media watchdog.
The minister, in a news statement, said Imran Khan had no right to speak about media freedom as it was he who had imposed the worst restrictions on the media while being in power.
“Imran Khan should rather be ashamed instead of lecturing others on media freedom as journalists were abducted and their ribs were broken during his rule,” she added.
The relentless assault on the press freedom, closure of the Parliament’s building and arm twisting of the media through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), she said, were the hallmarks of Imran Khan’s government. She said more than 10,000 journalists became jobless during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The minister alleged that Imran Khan had ruined the media industry economically and created a division among the media houses. Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Attaullah Tarar said that prohibited funding case was not an ordinary case as it proved that Jews and Indian people had funded the PTI against Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in the federal capital, the SAPM said that it had been proven that PTI was a foreign-funded party which did politics on the Army’s martyrs to divert public attention away from its prohibited funding.
“Prohibited funding is not an issue as this case is being proceeded in the courts, and the PTI will be strictly punished for its violation of Election Commission rules. Our major concern is that why Jews and Indian citizens funded a political party in Pakistan. Obviously they have their own interests with PTI that are surely to destabilize Pakistan and its economy,” he claimed.
Replying to the statement of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary about the torture on Shahbaz Gill, Tarar said that Gill was imprisoned in Adyala Jail which was under the control of Punjab government, so there was no justification in this statement. He said that if the PTI’s statement of torturing Shahbaz Gill was true then chief minister Punjab and interior minister Punjab should be held responsible for it as they were controlling Adyala Jail.
“There should not be any kind of torture on any one in jail,” he said, and stated that the PTI during its government had banned the medicines of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
He said the PTI government imprisoned Maryam Nawaz Sharif in special cell of jail where only killers or high-level culprits are imprisoned. “They tortured Rana Sanaullah by not providing him with a fan despite severe hot weather, and he was also a heart patient,” he said.
Tarar said that PTI during its tenure had kept Ahad Cheema, an honest officer, on remand in a fake case for 90 days in NAB which was clearly a case of political victimization.
“We patiently faced all this political victimization. We are not taking revenge now as Shahbaz Gill is facing serious charges,” he added.
