ISLAMABAD, Jul 6 (APP): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Wednesday said Imran Khan was desperate to cling to power which eventually ruined the national economy and state institutions.
His (Imran) desperation for remaining into the power also wreaked havoc with the lives of masses who were misled by building a false narrative on the so-called regime change foreign conspiracy, the minister said while addressing a news conference.
She said Imran Khan, who claimed himself “Sadiq aur Ameen” (honest and righteous), made billions by doing “business of diamonds” and selling gifts from Tosha Khana.
Marriyum said Imran Khan had nothing to do with the country’s foreign policy, economy, power generation and creation of employment opportunities.
In his four years rule, he robbed the masses and did corruption in every sector of the country, she added.
“Only agenda of Imran Khan was to turn Bani Gala into money-gala,” she stressed.
Marriyum said since the corruption of his wife Bushra Bibi and her friend Farah Gogi had been surfaced, Imran Khan now started threatening the state institutions.
“Make no mistake Imran Sahib as you will have to be answerable for your corruption,” she added.
She maintained that Imran Khan was squarely responsible for severe load shedding and extreme inflation in the country.
He (Imran) had to explain why he did not sign LNG contracts when its price was at the lowest in the international market, she added.
Marriyum said former Prime Minister Imran Khan was no more a mentally stable person and needed treatment urgently.
“This is the same person who used to say that he knew about the rise in the value of the dollar on TV and also he did not come to power to control the prices of potatoes, onions and tomatoes,” she added.
She said according to Imran Khan, his government received a cipher on March 8, but he remained silent over the matter and waited for the outcome of the no-confidence motion. However, he started linking the cipher with the foreign conspiracy from March 28, when he realized that the no-trust motion against him was destined to succeed.
Imran Khan became the prime minister by stealing the mandate of the people after the failure of RTS (Results Transmission System) on the election-day in 2018.
She opined that Imran did nothing but lied and tried to mislead the people while in power.
In 2018, when he became the prime minister of the country, he vowed to create 10 million job opportunities, build 5 million houses and end corruption within three months, but all of this turned out to be delusions of grandeur.
The minister said Imran Khan bent on spreading chaos and anarchy in the country and imprisoned political opponents during his tenure.
She asked Imran to tell the people how conspiracy was orchestrated to arrest Rana Sanaullah in two kilo heroin fake case and how did he try to make a narrative of conspiracy by calling journalist David Rose in the PM House.
She said Imran should also tell the people that his government reached out to the National Crime Agency against Shehbaz Sharif and could not present any evidence in the courts which declared that corruption, money laundering, kickbacks and any misuse power were found.
She asked Imran to tell the people how the Asset Recovery Unit headed by Shahzad Akbar became an Asset Making Unit and how the NAB was used to harass businessmen, and the FIA was used for political victimization of opponents.
She asked Imran tell the people how Miftah Ismail and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi were arrested for signing the LNG contracts on low price.
She said that the PTI did not buy cheap LNG and now the power plants on the LNG were closed due to the incompetence of the PTI.
Marriyum asked Imran to explain how Saad Rafique, Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal were jailed and tell the people how the PTI rulers deprived the masses of flour, sugar, electricity, gas, medicines at affordable price with his signatures and how the petrol and gas mafia benefited in his rule.
From 2013 to 2018, no power project was run on furnace oil but when PTI came to power, why furnace oil was used and power projects were delayed, she questioned.
The price of sugar was increased from Rs 52 to Rs 120 per kg when PTI came to power, she said asking Imran to tell the nation who made millions at the cost of the consumers.
The minister said the people should be told how economic landmines were laid by subsidizing petrol out of his fear of the no-trust motion.
The Imran-led government negotiated with the IMF on weak grounds, and did not implement the agreement due to which the present regime had to make difficult decisions, she added.
She said Imran Khan kept Hamza Shehbaz in jail for 22 months but could not prove corruption of a single dime.
Imran should disclose about the transactions regarding the appointments and transfer made on Farah Gogi’s recommendations, she added.
Marriyum said Bushra Bibi directed a campaign against the institutions, when evidence of corruption against Imran Khan came to the light. Reality was that Imran Khan took the cipher out of his pocket in a jalsa on March 28 on the directives of Bushra Bibi who called for building a narrative which linked the so-called foreign conspiracy with treason.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan remained in power for almost four
years, but he did not tell the people anything , now when the corruption
evidence against him had come to light, now he was anxious to tell the people ” real truth”.
He should tell the people that there were business transactions
between Bushra Bibi and Farah Gogi in Mani Gala, she said adding when the evidence started coming, the inquiry against Farah Gogi started, then he
remembered that I will tell.
She said that when the no-confidence motion against Imran was successful, he said that there was a foreign conspiracy.
The minister said that when there was evidence
of corruption against Imran, when things were connected with Bushra Bibi
and Farah Gogi now he threatened to open his mouth.
She said that today the demand for electricity had reached 30,000 MW, whereas power generation capacity was 23,900 MW, out of which 12,000 MW was generated by Nawaz Sharif, but not even one MW power was added in the system during
the last four years.
She asked that Imran Khan should tell the people that why he had stopped the planned projects, stopped CPEC and power projects.
She said that many power projects were delayed in last four years, 1263 MW Punjab Thermal Project was delayed for 26 months, 330 MW Thar Energy Limited project was delayed for 17 months, Thal Nova Power Project 330 mw was delayed for 20 months, 320 MW Shanghai Electric project was delayed for 20 months.
Similarly, the 720 MW Krot power project was delayed by 10 months.
These projects have generation capacity about four thousand megawatts of
electricity which initiated during PML-N tenure and Imran Khan was responsible for their delay.
Marriyum said that people want to know that when he was in government for four
years, NAB-Niazi nexus was in place, FIA, anti-corruption agencies were under him, but he could not even present a single piece of evidence against his political opponents in the courts.
The minister said that Imran Khan used to make a lot of fuss when other people’s audios were leaked.
She said in talk shows Imran had defended this type of recordings as he wanted to target political opponents and this was his mindset.
Marriyum said today people were questioning Imran Khan why he deprived them of affordable flour, sugar, electricity, gas and medicines.
She said that Imran Khan should tell the people why Bushra Begum issued instructions to run trends against institutions and political opponents, why she was distributing certificates of treason.
Imran Khan used to claim that Bushra Bibi was a housewife, but she was asking to
issue certificates of treason against political opponents to save her corruption and business transactions.
Marriyum said that Imran Khan had shamelessly filed a case against Rana Sanaullah for possession of heroin.
She said that people know the mindset of Imran Khan, and he did not need to inform them about it.
She said that Imran Khan was engaged in political revenge for four years because his priorities were different and controlling inflation, fixing the economy were not his priorities, his priorities were misleading the youth, snatching their jobs, deporting them and silencing the voices of political opponents.
She said that if his (Imran) priority were national development, he would have driven the economy to 6% growth in 2018, maintaining zero load shedding but his priority was to plunder national wealth at the centre, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through Farah Gogi.
“Now that action is being taken and it is time to respond, Imran Khan says he will open his mouth,who Imran Khan is trying to intimidate,” she asked.
Today the institutions were neutral and working in accordance with the constitution, she said adding that Imran Khan claimed that NAB amendments had
been made to end corruption cases but when he was in power why he did not give evidence, why the petition against Shahbaz Sharif was withdrawn from the Supreme Court.
Why his legal counsel Naeem Bukhari walked out of the SC saying they did not want to pursue the case, she added.
The minister said why Imran Khan did not tell the people about the external conspiracy on March 8, and why the assemblies were not dissolved.
She said that everyone knew that Imran Khan used the narrative of this conspiracy
for political objectives.
She said that Imran Khan was the so called honest man
who was trading in diamonds, giving Fatwas of treason, occupying
lands, buying and selling gifts of the Tosha Khana.
She said that now Imran Khan had to answer how Bani Gala became
a money gala, how his assets increased, how he misused his powers, he
had to answer for his corruption which he did through Bushra Bibi and
Farah Gogi.
When asked about the arrest of Journalist Imran Riaz, she said that the case had been moved in the Islamabad High Court which had been transferred to Punjab.
The minister said full details had been sought, and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Punjab Law Minister Malik Ahmed would brief the media in detail.
“We have not only made sacrifices for the freedom of the press, but we have also
been deprived of the right to freedom of expression for the last four years,” she remarked.
To another question, she said that during the last four years, it had been the
practice to arrest businessmen using the NAB. She said Mir Shakeel was arrested to gag the media.
To another question, she said that we would solve the problems of the people of
Pakistan, get the country out of the difficult situation.
It would have been easy to go to the polls immediately as the people reposed
confidence in the PML-N leadership three times and they knew that this party could solve the problems of the country, she added.
“We did not come to put our political opponents in jails without evidence,” she said.
The minister said that those who misused their powers, destroyed the national economy, were responsible for load shedding, inflation and economic catastrophe, would be held accountable by law, the law would make its own course and investigations had begun.
To another question, she said that “A Sports” channel was set up
using PTV, now FIA was investigating the entire deal whereas
show cause notices had also been given in PTV.
She said that in the past, institutions were used against political opponents but the present government’s narrative was to make Pakistan’s economy independent, to provide employment to the people by eliminating inflation from the country.
To a question she said the people should not be disappointed, the government was fully determined to solve their problems.
She said that Shehbaz Sharif had promised that he would give relief to the
people, the economy would be stabilized, employment opportunities would be provided and then ruling alliance would go to the people for fresh mandate.
