Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan was “uttering blatant lies”.
“Government has nothing to do with his arrest, nor his arrest has anything to do with the delay in elections as Imran is projecting in the foreign and domestic media,” she said while talking to Sky News.
The minister said Imran Khan was continuously breaking the law instead of cooperating with the police which was only implementing court orders. She said corruption cases were registered against Khan and he had to be arrested and brought to court to face the charges.
The minister said that PTI workers were continuously attacking police personnel with petrol bombs. Rubbishing allegations of police high-handed, Marriyum Aurangzeb said that police deployed outside Zaman Park did not carry any weapons.
On the contrary, she said so far 65 police personnel including DIG Operations Lahore have been injured as a result of PTI workers’ attacks.
She said that Imran’s arrest warrants were issued by the court and unarmed police were present in Zaman Park to arrest Khan. She said that Imran Khan should act responsibly.
She said when the court summoned Imran Khan, he makes an excuse for security threats but at the same time, he was ready to hold political rallies which was a clear manifestation of his duplicity. “Imran Khan wants a civil war, chaos, and anarchy in Pakistan as he is inciting people to violence,” Marriyum Aurangzeb maintained. The minister said Khan had no right to use his popularity to fuel civil war, violence and anarchy in the country.
“When the police come to arrest Imran Khan, he makes women and children a shield to protect him”, she said. Holding Imran responsible for the current economic situation of Pakistan, Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the former prime minister brought the country to the brink of default.
Elaborating her point, she said Imran Khan violated the IMF program signed by himself in March 2022 which multiplied the economic crisis. To a question, she said Imran Khan’s arrest warrants had been issued against him by the court in corruption cases.
If he had not committed any corruption, he should appear in courts and present proof of his innocence, she said. She reminded that Imran Khan in his four years of rule established false cases against his political opponents and sent them in jails to settle a political vendetta. “When Imran Khan was the prime minister, he used to personally issue arrest warrants for his political opponents,” Marriyum Aurangzeb remarked. Accusing Imran Khan of attempting to tarnish Pakistan’s image, she said when he was the Prime Minister, he also suppressed the media.
