Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday fired a broadside on Imran Khan for trying to sabotage democracy, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and national economy in exchange of the foreign funding received by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the last decade. “A conspiracy project, launched by Imran Khan, was executed in the country through the foreign funds received by his party during different periods including 2008-13,2013-18 and 2018-22,” she said while addressing a news conference along with Coordinator to the Prime Minister for Economy and Energy Bilal Azhar Kayani.
She said Imran Khan tried to weaken the parliamentary system and democracy in 2013 under the project which came into effect in 2008. She said Imran Khan incited his workers to attack the Supreme Court’s building, launched a civil obedience campaign, and made attempts to halt the CPEC by bringing political stability in the country. “These were the milestones, delivery points and commitments which Imran Khan made to his funders in exchange of the foreign funding,” she said, adding the followers of the PTI’s chief would have to ask from him where this funding was spent.
She said Imran Khan asserted that he made a blunder by approving the appointment of Sikander Sultan Raja as the chief election commissioner, but in reality, the major mistake was committed when Nawaz Sharif was ousted from his office for not taking salary from his son.
Marriyum said it was unfair to compare Imran Khan with Nawaz Sharif who, as prime minister, eliminated terrorism, ensured 6 percent economic growth, created massive employment opportunities for youth and above all, improved the country’s standing at the International level. She said the nation needed to look into the reasons behind the “Imran project” under which Kashmir was sold, CPEC projects stopped and the country registered negative economic growth.
“Imran Khan, during his government, rendered the youth jobless, created anarchy and political instability and imprisoned the media persons,” she added.
“The people had to understand that Imran Khan was responsible for the current crises which were created to fulfill the commitments made with the foreign fosters,” she said. She said the so-called truthful and honest Imran Khan had miserably exposed before the nation after the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict in the PTI’s prohibited funding case.
“The party of a foreign agent has been declared a “foreign-aided party” under the Political Party Ordinance, 2002 and the Election Act, 2017,” she remarked.
The minister said Imran Khan was trying to mislead the nation by consistently telling lies over a case that was investigated by the ECP for eight years.
The PTI sought 51 adjournments, changed nine lawyers, and filed 11 petitions with the court seeking delay in the announcement of the decision and an order to refrain the ECP from making foreign funding details public. She said the PTI chairman had “knowingly” and “willfully” received prohibited funding from a number of foreign firms and individuals, which he acknowledged by himself by submitting false affidavits in the ECP five times.
Marriyum said Imran Khan blamed others for corruption, but when his robbery came to the fore, he tried to give it an angle of technicality. He became naive about the funding of his party and termed it a technical matter. “It is not a technical matter, rather an open and shut case of foreign funding as no party can receive any aid from a foreign government, individual or firm under the political parties Order 2002,” she observed, adding the PTI concealed the bank accounts in which funding poured in from abroad.
“This is a matter of misappropriation as Imran Khan used donations for political and personal purposes,” she said, noting that the PTI opened undeclared bank accounts in the name of the party’s secretariat employees.
The people, she said, needed to understand that it was not a matter between the PTI and PML-N, but rather between the former, the State Bank of Pakistan and ECP. The case against the foreign funding received by the PTI was filed by its own member Akbar S Babar and the PML-N had nothing to do with the matter, she added.
The minister said Imran Khan remained a major hindrance in the foreign funding case’s proceeding as described by the ECP in its decision as “the worst abuse of law had happened.”
She said Imran Khan, who received funds and charity from overseas Pakistanis, for flood relief activities and other natural disasters, spent them for personal and political purposes.
