ISLAMABAD, Mar 27 (APP): Minister for Communication and Postal Services Maulana Asad Mehmood on Monday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had hired the services of international organizations to bridge the gap with the United States (US).
The statement comes in the wake of the PTI hiring a US lobbying firm Praia Consultants LLC, on Feb 21 this year for six months in a bid to garner support from Washington.
Addressing the joint session of parliament, he said the PTI chairman Imran Khan tried to build a narrative against the US establishment[ by brandishing an alleged cipher]. The minister said that the former prime minister tried to do so to give the impression that his government was being removed unconstitutionally.
Maulana Asad said that the sham anti-US narrative had been exposed as Zalmay Khalilzad, Christina Lamb, and Brad Sherman were tweeting in the favour of Imran Khan, alleging the former prime minister had been working on “foreign agenda for a long time in the country”.
He categorically stated that they would not allow anyone to implement foreign agenda in Pakistan as long as they were in power. The minister also took a jibe against certain organizations of the “few so-called civil society” publicly supporting Imran Khan, which he said, in contrary that they had never raised their voices in favor of the oppressed people of Balochistan, and people residing in other parts of the country.
Criticizing certain decisions including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Judicial murder, sending an elected [former] Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to home, and a strange definition of the constitution (in reference to a ruling which discarded votes when the parliamentarian crossed the floor against the parliamentary’s head directions on the presidential reference), he said the parliament should hold those “elements accountable” as it was the supreme constitutional body of the country.
He complained that there were certain individuals who were frequently “obliged by the courts” while the government’s pleas were not given due consideration. The minister said that despite apprehensions on the courts’ decisions, they had implemented them in letter and spirit and never interfered in the matters of the judiciary and election commission, also expressing hope that they should be treated in the same manner.
He said the elements including the then NA speaker, former prime minister, and the president “who played with the Constitution”, during the ‘no trust motion’ in the National Assembly last year, should be tried under the provision of Article 6 of the Constitution.
He further accused the PTI government of “damaging Pakistan’s economy and diplomatic relations with friend countries including China and Saudi Arabia during its tenure”.
