‘Imran Khan not a politician, but a terrorist’

• “Imran during his govt had put political opponents in death cells.”
• Information minister says former PM destroyed national economy.
• “Imran is intimidating the court with hooliganism and terrorism.”

While coming down hard on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that Imran Khan is not a politician but a “terrorist”, his Zaman Park residence is a bunker of terrorists and a laboratory for petrol bombs.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Sunday, she said that if the writ of the state, judiciary and police would be challenged, a civil war would erupt in the country.

The police job is to provide protection to the courts which are the guardian of justice, she added. “If the courts compromise the police writ, then there will be a civil war in this country and every street of this country will have its own law.”

According to the federal minister, if Imran was allowed to flout the law, gangs, hooligans and terrorists would emerge from every street and attack courts and police. “If you think that by giving protection and this concession to a ‘Ladla’ there will be a rule of law in this country, then you are wrong.”

The courts, she further said, have been summoning a person since August 23 last year but he did not appear and when the court ordered to arrest and produce the person, he instigated his followers to attack the judiciary.

Marriyum went on to say that it had never happened in the history of the country that a criminal was summoned to court and provided with the facility to make attendance from his car — referring to Imran Khan yesterday’s appearance at Islamabad Judicial Complex where the judge allowed the former prime minister to mark his attendance from his car due to the violence that erupted inside the complex.

“Imran Khan who ruled and dominated this country for [nearly] four years had put all political opponents in death cells to settle political scores. He did not even spare sisters and daughters of political opponents and also got them arrested even from hospital beds.”

The PML-N leader further said that Khan during his misrule destroyed the national economy, made the people unemployed and deprived them of two timely meals.

During the PTI rule, she insisted, prices of edible items like flour and sugar, cooking oil and electricity and gas tariffs skyrocketed which hit the common man badly.

The minister alleged that this person had gone mad after losing power, and now from a political terrorist, he had become a terrorist attacking the state institutions.

She said when the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government came to power last year, it had the power and authority to arrest Imran Khan but did not want Khan to allow him to “play the victim card”.

Imran Khan, Marriyum said, was booked in corruption cases, Toshakhana gifts theft, and Tyrian White paternity case as the law had taken its course without any interference from the present government.

“Imran had no answer to the allegations against him, he had set the country on fire through arson and attacking the police. Imran Khan used to say that his life was in danger, he was sick, he was an elderly person and could not appear in court.”

The info minister added that Khan also alleged that the government would kill him after the arrest, giving that reason for not appearing in court. “The police were only following court orders, but PTI goons attacked the police and burnt vans.”

She added: “Yesterday [Saturday] it was proved that claim of Imran Khan’s threat to life is bogus and if he is sick, there is a plan to kill him, then what happened yesterday.”

The minister said Imran Khan was a liar, a “terrorist and cowardly person and the public saw everything yesterday that this cowardly foreign agent did not want to appear before the court”.

She said that the government had repeatedly told the court that the ousted prime minister, who was removed from power in April last year, would attack the writ of the state and the past few days’ actions of Imran Khan and his goons had vindicated its stance. “Imran is intimidating the court with hooliganism and terrorism.”

Marriyum further said, “This [Imran Khan] cowardly person from Zaman Park, Lahore to Islamabad Trial Court, armed with weapons attacked but did not appear in the court.”

The police which was trying to implement the court orders was attacked by Imran Khan’s violent followers, she said, adding that the masses had seen what happened at Zaman Park before the Islamabad incident.

It was the responsibility of the police to protect the society but it had been attacked by a terrorist, she said.

She questioned if the PTI could still be termed a political party after time and again attacking the state and its institutions.

She recalled that the courts in the past used to cancel bails on a delay of one minute and “now they are being attacked by one person with sticks, stones and petrol bombs and slingshots”.

The federal minister said that the mysterious silence of the “justice system and law is becoming a threat to this country”.

She said the police found petrol bombs, Kalashnikov rifles, weapons, catapults, acrylic balls and terrorists while searching Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence which “nowadays give a look of the ‘terrorists’ bunker’”.