ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Thursday that the government has nothing to do with the attempt to arrest Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

She said Imran Khan is telling lies as the government has nothing to do with the attempt to arrest him and that has nothing to do with the delay in elections as Imran is projecting in the foreign and domestic media. She said this in an interview with a foreign media.

The minister said Imran Khan was continuously breaking the law instead of cooperating with the police which was only implementing court orders. She said corruption cases were registered against Khan and he had to be arrested and brought to court to face the charges.

The minister said the PTI workers were continuously attacking police personnel with petrol bombs. Rubbishing allegations of police highhandedness, Marriyum said police deployed outside Zaman Park did not carry any weapons.

The minister said 65 police personnel including the DIG Operations of Islamabad got injured as a result of PTI workers’ attacks. She said Imran Khan’s arrest warrants were issued by the court and police were present at Zaman Park to arrest him. She said Imran Khan should act responsibly.

She said when the court summoned Imran Khan, he made an excuse for security threats but at the same time, he was ready to hold political rallies, which was a clear manifestation of his “blatant lies”.

“Imran Khan wants a civil war, chaos and anarchy in Pakistan as he is inciting people to violence,” Aurangzeb maintained. The minister said Khan had no right to use his popularity to fuel civil war, violence and anarchy in the country.

“When the police come to arrest Imran Khan, he makes women and children a shield to protect him,” she said.

Marriyum said that the former prime minister brought the country to the brink of default.

Elaborating her point, she said Imran Khan violated the IMF programme signed himself which multiplied the economic crisis.

To a question, she said Imran Khan’s arrest warrants had been issued against him by the court in corruption cases. If he had not committed any corruption, he should appear in courts and present proof of his innocence, she said.

She reminded that Imran Khan in his four years of rule established false cases against his political opponents and sent them to jails to settle political vendetta.

“When Imran Khan was the prime minister, he used to personally issue arrest warrants for his political opponents,” Marriyum remarked.

Accusing Imran Khan of attempting to tarnish Pakistan’s image, she said when he was the prime minister, he also suppressed the media.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023