Imran Khan doesn’t want elections but selection again: information minister

• Information minister says people remember PTI tenure as “black chapter”.
• Wonders how PTI followers still believe in baseless allegations of Imran Khan.
• “Imran Khan during his tenure in power only conspired against country."

LAHORE: Firing fresh broadside at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the deposed prime minister is not interested in elections in the country, adding that he actually wants his selection as premier again.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, she said that Khan’s “tamashas” (dramas) of cypher, long march, avoid jail campaign, elections, Zaman Park, attacks and threats to courts have reached their conclusion.

The people of Pakistan remember his tenure as a “black chapter” in the history of the country as they are paying the price of Imran Khan’s four-year misrule which was marked by corruption, incompetence and inefficiency.

‘PTI social media gang’

Khan did not have political issues, rather he is facing psychological problems, the info minister said, adding that last year Khan concocted a fake narrative of a foreign conspiracy for toppling his government which was accepted by followers of his cult and “PTI social media gang” working from abroad claimed that imported government had been installed in Pakistan.

The narrative of international conspiracy started from cypher, blaming the United States, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif and then Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi. Those who accused the US of conspiracy are now tendering apologies and seeking pardon, she said, ridiculing the PTI chairman and his party.

She wondered how the followers of PTI still believe in the baseless allegations of Imran Khan. The federal minister further said that yesterday the people of Lahore completely rejected Imran Khan, and the PTI had to use old pictures and even Minar-e-Pakistan was removed from the pictures.

On failure of the cypher narrative, she said, Imran Khan started a long march which was doomed while giving it a religious touch; the Jail Bharo  (court arrest) movement was started after the long march disaster during which journalists and police personnel were martyred.

She said Imran Khan is always ready to lead and address political rallies and marches but when the courts summoned him, he starts making excuses for his old age, injury, diseases and above all threat to life.

The minister went on to say that the ousted prime minister, who refused to go to court, went to Minar-e-Pakistan to address the rally. He was neither sick, nor an elderly person, nor he faced any threat to life when going to address the rally but he will not go to court to face cases of foreign funding, Toshakhana and Tyrian White, Marriyum added

‘Devil mindset’

The information minister also said that the Constitution and law of the land could not follow the dictates of a person who had the mindset of a devil. Terrorists, she said, were present in Zaman Park from where petrol bombs were thrown at police and slingshots and stones were used.

The minister said that if Imran Khan wanted fresh elections, why did he dissolve the National Assembly after the no-confidence motion was tabled and why did he force the speaker, deputy speaker and even the president to violate the Constitution?

Castigating Khan’s 10-point agenda, the PML-N leader said the PTI ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 10 years, it remained in power at the Centre and Punjab for almost four years but set a record of bad governance and corruption.

Taking a jibe at Imran Khan, Marriyum said he was supposed to revive the national economy through ‘buffalos and eggs’ but the country’s loans were nearly doubled in only 4 years’ time.

She said when Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, Farah Gogi and other looters from the PTI would be brought to book, rule of law would be established in Pakistan.

She said the PTI chief claimed to provide 5,000,000 housing units to the poor segments of society and create 10 million jobs, but on the contrary, over 10 million people lost jobs during the PTI rule and he failed to build housing units for the poor. She said that the housebuilding scheme was taken over by Bushra Bibi through Al-Qadir Trust.

Instead, Imran Khan plunged the national economy into a tsunami of unemployment and inflation due to which the common man suffered badly, she added.

“Imran Khan during his tenure in power only conspired against the country and its people and ruined its economy”, she said adding that the people of Pakistan are fully aware of Imran’s antics and they can no longer be befooled by Khan’s 10-point agenda.

She also said now the deposed premier’s narrative had been buried and he is only trying to divert attention from the Toshakhana case, Tyrian White paternity issue and the foreign funding scam.

"Imran Khan has no option left as his politics, narrative and conspiracies had failed and he had been pleading to the chief of army staff to give him time for the meeting.”

She said that the ousted prime minister who kept Tayyaba Gul illegally confined in the PM House to blackmail the then NAB chairman is now talking about human rights abuses.

She said that the United Nations and the United States are fully aware of the track record of Imran Khan as the prime minister on human rights. She said the PTI chief, who has been doing politics over the dead bodies of his party activists, is accusing the present government of committing rights violations which is incorrect.