Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan should not use the name of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to achieve his “nefarious agenda”.
“Whether Quaid-e-Azam has said that the (wrist)watch with the image of Mecca should be sold from Toshakhana, or did he say to offer a lifetime extension to the army chief behind closed doors,” she said while addressing a news conference here to brief the media persons about the decisions taken by the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
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The minister said today Imran Khan while congratulating Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir on assuming the charge cited a “farman” (saying) of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and expressed the hope that the new leadership of the military would end trust deficit between the nation and state.
She said “if Imran Khan thinks that the meaning of trust deficit is to offer a lifetime extension to the army chief behind closed doors then the mistrust actually prevails in his mind.”
Marriyum went on to say that Imran Khan made an offer to the (former) army chief for a lifetime extension, “launched malicious (social media) campaigns against the martyrs and officers of Pak Army, formally invited the head of an institution to intervene in the politics and above all forced the governor, deputy speaker and other constitutional office holders to violate the Constitution so that he could remain in the power”.
She asked Imran Khan whether he made the offer for a lifetime extension to the former army chief behind closed doors and quipped that Imran and his wife allegedly”demanded a ring of the five-carat diamond from a businessman in line with the “Farman” of Quaid-e-Azam”
“Whether Imran Khan spent the donation money for political purposes in line with the sayings of Quaid-e-Azam and abducted Taybba Gul and put her in the Prime Minster’s House for blackmailing the NAB chairman, or locked up the FIA DG in the PM’s House, or did victimization of political opponents or sell the gifts from Toshakhana, or launch the campaign against the military martyrs, or plunder national exchequer after stealing public mandate while following the teachings of the father of the nation,” Marriyum asked while taking a jibe against the PTI chief.
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She said Imran Khan had no right to cite the sayings of Quaid-e-Azam on any platform as he (Imran) had an autocratic mindset and was “hell-bent on spreading hate, chaos, anarchy and polarization in the country”.
To a query, the minister accused the PTI chief of “launching a malicious campaign against the state institutions and their heads on social media networking sites”.
She said it was the same party whose chairman gave orders to his workers to launch a “malicious campaign against the martyrs of Pak Army who lost their lives while carrying out flood relief and rescue activities in Balochistan”.
“What else can be expected from a person (Imran Khan) who has such an obnoxious mindset,” she said, adding this was the same mindset which had formally invited the institutions’ heads to intervene in national politics.