LAHORE    -     Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said after the failure of deploying all 'political gimmicks', Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan was now “playing dirty politics over the dead bodies of poor people to get petty political gains”.

Addressing a press conference here, she castigated the PTI chief and asked how many more lives he would use for gaining political mileage.

The minister said that “Imran Niazi is hellbent on creating anarchy and lawlessness in the county”. She recalled that when the no-confidence motion was tabled against Imran last year, he allegedly concocted the story of cipher and foreign interference without thinking that this would damage Pakistan’s foreign relations.

Marriyum said now “Imran Niazi is tendering apologies to the United States and giving clarifications over his self-constructed cipher conspiracy”.

She said the PTI chief was not bothered a bit by dragging the country towards anarchy just for his “political vested interest”.

She said the former prime minister was using the said tactics to regain power at any cost. For these reasons, the minister said Imran decided to “play with the cipher” and coerced the speaker, deputy speaker of the National Assembly and even the president to violate the Constitution under his nefarious political agenda. She said behind closed doors, Imran offered lifetime extension to the former army chief, but when his offer was rejected he started “attacking national institutions”.

Marriyum said despite all his efforts, he could not spread anarchy and lawlessness in the country and his alleged desire of the “dismemberment of Pakistan after the fall of his government was not fulfilled”.

“From cipher manipulation, he shifted his propaganda to imported government and foreign conspiracy to gain his nefarious designs,” she maintained. She said that every single political gimmick of the PTI leadership, including allegations of imported government, had failed miserably. The minister alleged that “Imran Khan handed over the country to the IMF and played with the country’s economy”.

Marriyam Aurangzeb said during the PTI tenure, the practice of horse-trading during the Senate elections was rampant and at the time of no-trust vote, an audio leak of Imran surfaced about the purchasing of loyalties of legislators exposing his socalled democratic credentials.

“When Imran’s narrative of foreign conspiracy and the imported regime fell flat, he started his long march during which the firing incident occurred and he started the “politics of dead bodies”. She recalled that a television channel reporter Sadaf Naeem ran after Imran’s container in the discharge of professional responsibilities, but she was not allowed to take the interview of Imran. Rather, unfortunately she met with an accident and was crushed under the container but the PML-N leadership never accused Imran of her death, the minister upheld.

The minister alleged that during the PTI’s rule journalists were arrested, and kidnapped and their ribs were broken, and at the international level, Imran earned the name of a “predator of journalists”. She questioned how many “dead bodies Imran would need for his dirty politics”? The minister said that on Imran’s directions, provincial ministers of KP and Punjab were asked to write letters to sabotage the deal with the IMF. The minister also castigated the PTI chief for plunging the nation into the abyss of inflation and “suspending “the IMF program that he himself had signed and played with the interest of the country. She said that Imran, the other day shared audio of Maryam Nawaz, trying to give it a spin, but to the contrary, the latter never accused Imran or PTI of Zille Shah’s murder, rather she said it was an accident. Marriyum said Imran Khan instead of appearing in the courts to be held accountable for his crimes had plastered his leg.

She said that the PTI leadership had used the “mentally challenged person Zille Shah” for its political agenda. She also accused that PTI leader Raja Shakeel’s double cabin vehicle was used for shifting the said deceased body to the hospital, but they escaped from the hospital. She said that in Maryam Nawaz’s audio leak, the PML(N) chief organizer was just expressing regret and sorrow over the attitude of the PTI workers who left the corpse of Zille Shah in the hospital and escaped.

She said that even in her speech, Maryam did not accuse Imran as she had no intention to create anarchy in the country.

On the contrary, the minister said that Imran wanted to create anarchy and lawlessness in the country as he was not willing to appear in courts and file answers to the cases lodged against him. She said that today, Imran had given the call of a rally[which now has been postponed], lambasting the latter for avoiding the court summons by giving excuses on medical grounds. “He[Imran] has become a senior citizen suffering from diseases which cannot be named publicly,” she quipped.

She said that Imran used to ridicule his political opponents for their ailments but he was now giving excuses for his personal ailments. She questioned why did not the PTI leadership inform the police and called an ambulance when they saw that Zille Shah was hit by a vehicle. She asked why the driver of PTI leader Raja Shakeel was given shelter in Zaman Park residence of Imran.

She questioned why PTI leader Dr Yasmeen Rashid did not inform the police about the real matter of the incident and why Imran did a tweet even before the post-mortem of the deceased. The minister said that a black double cabin of the PTI leader was traced by 31 safe city cameras in Lahore. She said that Raja Shakeel was hiding in Zaman Park and Imran summoned the father of Zille Shah at his residence and “offered him money” to accuse the police, but he said it was an accident.

She held that Dr Yasmeen Rashid knew every detail about Zille Shah’s unfortunate death but she did not inform the police who had now traced everything from the CCTV cameras. She said the PTI leadership was trying to use the dead body of its poor worker as “fodder for its nefarious political agenda and now that the truth had come out, Imran has announced agitation”. She advised him that instead of creating anarchy and lawlessness, Imran should appear before the courts, and tell the truth about “Toshakhana gifts theft”, “misuse of charity money and his relationship with Tyrian White”. She said that thrice elected PM Nawaz Sharif used to appear in the courts in fake cases to set an example for others. His daughter was handcuffed in front of him, but he never sought exemption from personal appearance. Marriyum said that Imran got the entire PML-N leadership arrested including Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafiq and Rana Sanaullah.

She said that Imran got the “political advantage from the death of PTI worker Zille Shah”. Replying to journalists’ questions, she said Imran Khan was fully aware that he had no answer to the allegations levelled against him. She said Imran who used to accuse political opponents of corruption and money laundering, was himself involved in minting money from the national exchequer.

Taking a jibe at Imran, she said he had the “habit of taking money from others’ pockets”, and when he came to power, he “looted the national exchequer mercilessly”. She said that the government did not believe in political victimization, otherwise it would have arrested Imran last year when the PDM government came to power.

She said Imran was facing cases in the courts for which he should be held accountable. She said the PTI was not a political party, rather it was a “gang of political conspirators”.

She said a person who submitted the reply before the courts that he was sick and could not appear personally, was today ready to lead the political rally.

To a question, she said that all citizens should be treated equally by the law of the land. She said that Section 144 was imposed for that person who was absconding from the courts on the pretext of health issues but was ready to lead the agitation.

“Section 144 was imposed for the person who threatened the courts, who instigated party workers to break the gates of the courts, who is using women and children as a shield to escape arrest,” she held. The minister further said that if such persons were given an exemption then all accused would start behaving like Imran.

To a question, she said Shehbaz Sharif had a glorious record as the chief minister of the Punjab and as the prime minister, despite IMF conditions, he had given a marvellous Ramazan package in which the poor would be provided free of charge wheat flour. She said Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister successfully completed the IMF program as the prices of edible items, power and gas tariffs were at record low as compared to Imran Khan’s era. She reiterated once again that Imran signed an agreement with the IMF and he himself “suspended it”.