ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Monday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had buried his narrative of “Haqiqi Azadi or real independence” and “imported regime” by expressing the desire to mend ties with the US after repeatedly accusing it of hatching a conspiracy to oust him from power.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly while referring to the recent interview of the PTI chief to a foreign newspaper, the minister said that Imran Khan’s “U-turn” from his stance of “real independence” and “imported regime” was a “white lie” which is evident from his interview in which he expressed his desire to mend ties with the US.
He said that Imran Khan’s politics revolves around “fake narratives and lies” which compromised national interests, adding Khan will have to pay the political price for his “lies and changing narrative” regarding foreign conspiracy behind his ouster from power.
“Imran Khan took yet another U-turn by expressing his desire to mend relations with the US despite repeatedly accusing it of treating Pakistan as a “slave”,” he added.
Asif went on to say that Imran Khan's political rhetoric in the past and the recent one regarding the cipher are based on local political consumption.
Imran's accusations against the US had embarrassed the entire country, adding “now Imran Khan was saying to forget that narrative which has already damaged country's relations abroad”.
About the long march of the party, he said that the PTI should sit home instead of disturbing the routine life of the people through these futile marches, adding Imran Khan did not stand by his narrative – real independence, imported regime, and the cypher – more than a few weeks which is tantamount to compromising the honour and dignity of the country.
The minister said that the former prime minister misled the people by terming his ouster – which was done through a constitutional process of no-confidence motion – as a foreign conspiracy.
He stressed the need to make what he said the former minister must not go scot-free, saying he should have to pay the price for his “persistent lies and misleading the nation”.
Speaking on a point of order, another Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Javed Latif demanded the National Assembly speaker to give a ruling against PTI chairman Imran Khan’s media talks against the defense institutions and their heads.
He accused Imran Khan of making the army chief’s appointment controversial and insisted that the way the PTI chief is creating controversy about such an important appointment never happened in the 75-year history of the country.
He continued that Imran Khan not only made the most sensitive institution head’s appointment controversial, “but also launched a defamation campaign against the security institutions’ official(s) by leveling allegations against them”.
He alleged Imran Khan had spread “disinformation over the nuclear assets” in a bid to degrade the morale of the nation on many occasions.
He claimed the PTI chief had accused the defense institutions of not being independent, also contesting why Imran did not reveal it, even for a single time when he was at the helm of affairs.
When Imran Khan was in power, he added, he used to blackmail the anti-graft bodies so that he can achieve his “ulterior motives”.
“He[Imran] is using the same political gimmicks when he is no more in the government through carrying out rallies and sit-ins across the country,” he regretted.
He also regretted that Imran Khan was quite satisfied with the performance of the spy agencies when he was in power, but everything went wrong when he was out of power which is beyond comprehension.
“The reason why Imran is blaming the intelligence agencies is because they’ve decided to work within their constitutional parameters, and this is something Imran Khan doesn’t like and is maligning them everyday which is unjustified,” he added.
He cautioned the house that if Imran Khan was not made accountable for his “lies”, he would further tarnish the soft image of the country at the international level.
Meanwhile, the house passed two different bills relating to amendment in Qanun-e-Shahadat, 1984 and the publication of the Holy Quran (Elimination of Printing and Recording Errors) Act, 1973.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Mufti Abdul Shakoor moved the bill, respectively, which were then passed by the house.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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