Imran a symbol of country’s degradation: Marriyum

Information minister says PTI chairman made the country’s treasury a ‘retail shop’ when in power

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, while terming PTI Chairman Imran Khan ‘a political terrorist’, said he was a symbol of the country’s degradation.

Addressing the Muslim League-Nawaz workers’ convention here, the minister said all the allegations levelled by the ‘Toshakhana thief’ against the PML-N leadership proved wrong. She said it was ironic that a person who did not start a single development project when in power was blaming those who brought investments worth billions of rupees to the country. The minister said Daily Mail’s apology to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was actually an apology to the 220 million people of Pakistan. Imran Khan, in animosity of Shehbaz Sharif, used David Rose to publish a baseless news story against the PM, she added.

She said that in 2016 when Nawaz Sharif was holding office, Pakistan’s GDP growth rate was 6.2 percent whereas inflation was only 2.3 percent. During Nawaz’s era, she added, the IMF programme was rolled back, CPEC projects were started, employment opportunities were provided to the youth, and 14,000 megawatts of electricity were added to the national grid. The minister said at that time, a conspirator, incompetent, inefficient and ‘Toshkhana thief’ was waiting for the finger of the umpire and holding sit-ins.

She said Nawaz Sharif made the country a nuclear power but Imran Khan ruined the development process. Marriyum said Nawaz Sharif, in his tenure, eradicated the scourge of terrorism, but when Imran Khan came to power, terrorism rose its head again. She said ‘the Toshakhana thief’ alleged that the PML-N leadership was involved in money laundering, but he could not give any evidence in the courts of Pakistan and the United Kingdom. On the contrary, he himself was caught doing money laundering. Marriyum Aurangzeb asked when will Imran Khan give an account “of his theft”.

Imran Khan made the country’s treasury a “retail shop” during his time, whereas Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was striving for the betterment of the people. She congratulated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal for emerging victorious in the court cases. She said Hanif Abbasi was sentenced to 25-years imprisonment in Imran’s tenure but he stood firm and even now standing firm like a lion. Imran took false oaths and put a heroin case on Rana Sanaullah, who stood strong like a rock and still standing like a lion with Nawaz Sharif.

She said Imran embezzled the BRT money and abused the Chief Election Commissioner when it decided the case against him on merit. He used to offer an extension to the army chief in closed rooms but campaigned against the martyrs outside. Imran Khan, she said, appointed an incompetent and inefficient person as the chief minister of Punjab who damaged the province. Taking a jibe at the PTI chairman, she said, after 4 years in power, Imran claimed that he had no power, whereas he had Farah Gogi and Pinki with him. She said Imran Khan even sold a gifted watch carrying the image of the Holy Kaaba.

She said, in Imran Khan’s era, Nawaz Sharif used to come to courts along with his daughter and presented documents from the past 40 years in accountability courts to clear his name. She said when Imran Khan was asked to answer for his wrongdoings, he got worried and appeared in public on the wheelchair. During the address, the slogans in favour of the PML-N leadership were raised by the party workers, who came in large numbers to attend the rally.