F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that Pakistan was in safe hands as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had always dealt with economic crises in the past as well.
“We have dealt with such economic conditions always, when Nawaz Sharif came to power and we dealt with it recently in 2013 also, ” she said in an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera TV. “We have the experience; the intention and we have the will to put the country on an economic and development path and we are busy doing that.” Referring to Imran Khan, she said that only one person who is a “fascist and believes in violence and who incites the mobs” was responsible for the present condition of Pakistan.
Replying to another question, she said the present regime inherited highest inflation and the country was at the verge of default which we saved. The minister said Imran Khan had signed an agreement with the IMF, and violated all the agreement conditions and when the PDM came in power, the IMF programme was suspended which it was renegotiating. Imran Khan had put the country at the risk of default and the present government had saved it, she added.
Marriyum said “We are negotiating with the IMF because the credibility of the country is at risk as Imran Khan’s legacy of economic destruction has played havoc.” The minister said the government had nothing to do with Imrna Khan’s arrest, he was arrested by NAB according to the law where he was being investigated in a corruption case related to Al-Qadir University. She said that many notices were sent by the NAB but Imran did not respond.
The minister said that the NAB team went to Islamabad High Court where Imran Khan was appearing and arrested him and later the IHC declared that it was a legal and lawful arrest. ” It was also endorsed by the Accountability Court later so it was all done through NAB which arrested him and he had to answer which he did not of course and what happened we all saw”, she said. Marriyum said that when he was in the government, the opposition leaders who used to ask questions, the first two rows in the Parliament were in death cells in jail.
She said when the media used to ask questions, a leading media house owner was sent to jail and was silenced. She said that the report of ‘Reporters Without Borders’ had called Imran “a media predator” and this was his four years legacy.
The minister said that when Imran Khan lost power he was being questioned on different corruption cases under investigation in the Federal Investigation Agency. She said that there was a pattern that happened in the last 14 months, when police took a warrant by the court to Imran Khan at Zaman Park, he resorted to violence and used women and children as human shields to protect himself.
At Zaman Park, the police personnel were welcomed by petrol bombs, and then there was May 25 last year when he announced the long march and incited violence calling workers to come out on streets, bridges were broken, buildings, metro stations and buses were attacked, she added. She said the judicial complex was attacked when a judge summoned him in a corruption case trial which was under investigation.
“Same pattern happened and everything was broken including doors, windows and cameras of the judicial complex”, she maintained. The minister said that Imran entered with a mob with Kalashnikovs and petrol bombs in the judicial complex. “So, there is continuity that whenever he is asked a question and called under investigation this is how he resorts to violence,” she added.
The minister said then there was that day when he was in the court, NAB arrested Imran Khan, same happened in the country for three days and this was the only person. To a question, she said there was no miscalculation on behalf of the government and security agencies as we had a force which reacted very maturely because “we know it is just one person inciting violence and who has this mindset and a pattern of doing things and resorting to violence”. She said that the government was the state which constituted the judiciary, executive and the Parliament.
“When one pillar of the state tries to enforce law and order in the country and maintain the law and order in the country, the second pillar equally important and equally powerful does otherwise and facilitates and enables an environment where such activities are carried out across the country and ignores it and invites a person with allegation Rs 60 billion of corruption and says it is really good to see you Mr Khan.” She said Imran offered the then chief of army staff, a lifetime extension in closed doors and also met him in President House just to invite him to interfere in the process of vote of confidence against Imran Khan.
“Imran had no problem with Bajwa when he was there but when he did not listen to Imran Khan’s request, he was called out by Mr Khan because he lost power,” she added. She said the current chief of army staff was not willing to sit with Imran Khan in a room and interfere in the democratic process of the country. She said additionally when the current army chief was then DG ISI, he went to Imran and informed him people in his government his wife, her friend and the ministers were involved in corruption and he provided evidence.
Instead of taking action against the corrupt, Imran removed him from the post of DG ISI. The minister said that Imran Khan knew that the current army chief was aware about his corruption and had the evidence. She opined that Imran believed that the COAS was playing a role and giving evidence to the government to file cases against Imran Khan but it was not true. To a question, she said the references filed by FIA and NAB were in the courts where Imran Khan was not ready to face the law and defend himself. She said then there was a Tyrian case in Islamabad court, and not with the government.
Imran Khan was trying to develop the perception that the government was settling some political vendetta or making him a target of political victimization which was contrary to the facts, she added. If the government had wanted to target him, it would not have waited for 14 months, she said, adding “We could have arrested him just for the cipher thing, the joke that he was moving around with he would have been behind the bars.”
She said Imran Khan dissolved the KP and Punjab assemblies on what he called Mr Bajwa’s advice. On the contrary, the then chief minister of the Punjab, Pervaiz Illahi had categorically stated on a television channel that he never wanted to dissolve the provincial assembly, the minister added. Castigating Imran Khan, she said when he was not in power, he wanted the election should be held as per his desire. She said Imran’s diktats could not be followed as there was a Constitution and law which would definitely take its own course and the election would be held after completion of constitutional tenure. (APP)
