F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief now stood exposed for his “treachery and enmity towards Pakistan as he has been persistently pursuing anti-state agenda at the behest of his foreign masters”.
“He is least concerned about the national interests, particularly the sensitivity of defence and economic issues,” she said while addressing a news conference. The minister said the PTI chief was begging the United States to ban military aid to Pakistan, which manifested his anti-state mindset.
She said he was not pursuing a political agenda rather he was “toeing the line of his foreign masters who wanted to see Pakistan as a failed state”. He was hatching conspiracies against the country under a well-planned strategy by brainwashing the youth with the help artificial intelligence using foreign funds. Once the brainwashing of youth was completed, she said, his facilitators resorted to accomplish his anti-state missions by executing the conspiracies and the May 9 tragedy was a case study in that regard.
The entire nation witnessed as how his facilitators had deputed the workers at sensitive installations to set them on fire just for accomplishing his mission, she added. Now, she said, he was fully exposed before the masses and that was why his nefarious designs could not work at all.
She said he might think that he could mislead the world while speaking to foreign media with two flags in the background. “Yet your conspiracies, anti-state activities and treachery have been exposed before the people and you no longer can mislead the nation,” she reiterated. His anti-state missions were destined to fail as the country was protected by its 220 million people, she added. Marriyum said like a suicide bomber, the PTI chief had inflicted massive damage to the economy, rendering a large number of people unemployed and halting the country’s development process.
The minister said the provision of maximum relief to the people in the budget was the government’s topmost priority and in that regard, consultative meetings were underway. She said the economy was in a shamble when the coalition government took charge last year, which had now been put in the right direction. The government’s focus was on reducing the prices of flour, cooking oil, wheat and other edible items, she added.
The minister said the government had given the historic Kisaan package last year, which led to record wheat production causing substantial reduction in its price. Now further incentives would be offered for farmers in its next phase in the budget, she added. Moreover, she said, a major uplift programme for the youth would also be announced in the coming budget. She said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s last government tenure was a journey of development and prosperity.
During the period from 2013 to 2018 , she said, the economy was stabilized, with commencing of work on China Pakistan Economic Corridor, completion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, generation of 14,000 MW electricity and rooting out the scourge of terrorism. She recalled that the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did pursue the national interests instead of the personal ones by giving an opportunity to parties with majority in the provinces to form the governments there. He very well knew that political stability in the country would eventually lead to economic stability, which was imperative for prosperity and development, Marriyum added.
She said with the PTI chief’s installation as prime minister in 2018, a certain mindset was imposed on Pakistan. For four years in power, they ruined the economy and made tens of thousands jobless, besides steep rise in the prices of wheat flour, electricity, gas and medicines, and taking down the GDP growth from 6.2% to negative. She said it was the PTI chairman, who himself had signed the agreement with the IMF and then first violated it and later went for its suspension. In fact, he and his confidants were funded from abroad for destroying and harming the country, the minister claimed.
She said the PTI chief concocted the story of the cipher and then built a narrative that a foreign country had ousted him from the power. However, the narrative eventually relegated to interim Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi. “Whenever the staff level agreement with the IMF was about to reach, this person resorted to arson and chaos,” she said while recalling the time when his provincial governments’ finance ministers wrote letters to the Fund for sabotaging the programme. Marriyum said now he was making a hue and cry over “human rights violations” but in fact those people who were being tried under the law were miscreants involved in attacks on sensitive installations.
On May 9, they burnt government property, set the building of Radio Pakistan on fire, attacked sensitive buildings, which was no politics, she said, adding “if the economy is not getting stable today, it is this mission and mindset that is working against the country, which is responsible for it.” This person, she said, did not want end to inflation and terrorism in the country. She said that in Karachi, a PTI activist Imran Mehboob was identified as the person instigating people to damage national property, but the PTI chief had called him Colonel Tanveer to mislead the people.
Marriyum said the PTI chief stooped too low that he claimed his party female workers were raped in police custody, but the latter themselves contradicted his claim. She said that PTI office bearers met dignitaries in the US to get signatures on an anti-Pakistan resolution. To a question, the minister said the economy had been stabilized with the implementation of prudent policies in line with the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“Last year, we presented the best budget and despite the suspension of IMF programme, we provided incentives and relief to every strata of the society, including women, youth, farmers and artists,” the minister remarked. She resolved that the government would again present the best budget this year. The minister said the economic experts fully knew that the economic stability required end of the political instability, unrest and violence.
She said the PTI chief would not rest until the country faced isolations and economic sanctions. He wanted all the friendly countries to stay away from Pakistan so that the Kashmir cause could be compromised. “His unfinished agenda is yet to be finished and his mission to destroy the country is reflection of the mindset working against the country,” she added. She recalled that the PTI chief used women and children as human shield to protect himself and save himself from his accountability in corruption cases.
Marriyum said May 9 tragedy reinforced the fact that he wanted blood and dead bodies on the roads of Pakistan for the achievement of his ulterior motives. She said the international organizations had rejected his claims of human rights violations in Pakistan as they fully knew his reality that he was a liar and pretended to be an innocent person. “His actions contradicted what he said,” the minister said while citing his assertions of being peaceful which negated the reality.
It was he on whose orders graves were dug in the Federal Capital, and important buildings and sensitive installations were attacked, she said, adding the country had never witnessed a person like the PTI chairman who asked his workers to pelt stones on the graves of martyrs and pictures. She ruled out negotiations with such people having a mindset to set the country on fire. The minister recalled the previous tenure of Nawaz Sharif government when the PTI leader was abusing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif was focused on projects which produced electricity for the country, provided road infrastructure to the nation, created massive job opportunities for youth and curbed the inflation.
She said the PTI chief was on a mission to create unrest in the country by spreading chaos and anarchy. It was evident from actions and words of him who built narrative on cipher and instigated his workers for vandalism and arson.
He prioritizes his own interests over the country’s interests, she added. “Whosever facilitated him in achieving his mission should be held accountable and dealt in accordance with the law,” she said while responding to another query. “No consultation on caretaker prime minister so far,” she said, adding it would held before the nation. “We do not believe in offering life-time extensions behind closed doors,” she remarked.
Imran stands exposed for treachery & enmity towards Pakistan: Marriyum
