Spokesman Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday strongly refuted the impression that the arrest of chairman PTI Imran Khan was linked to politics or upcoming elections.
“Imran Khan was not arrested by the government, only court’s verdict was implemented when he was sentenced in Tosha Khana case,” she said while addressing a press conference here.
The minister said that the investigation of PTI chairman’s crimes had been going on for over one year, more than 40 hearings were done in the Tosha Khana case, but PTI chairman appeared only three times.
She said that it was a simple case of a thief punished for his crime and any effort to link it with politics or elections was unjustified. “All the legal requirements have been met and after the trial is over, the court has given its verdict, in the case of Tosha Khana and his theft has proved,” she said.
The minister read the court verdict which said, ” It has been successfully proven that the accused has committed offense of corrupt practices by making and publishing false statements and submitted false and incorrect declarations and material in particular related to Form B of the year 2021″.
The minister said all thieves arrested in various cases also have their vote, so should they all be released before elections?
She said that Imran Khan, despite given ample opportunity to provide proofs and file response to questions regarding corruption and misuse of power, he failed to file replies to allegations against him.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said the chairman PTI used to make excuses whenever he was asked for an answer in allegations of corruption and malpractices.
She said that despite of the providing all the opportunities to clear his name, Imran Khan continued to lie in his answers in the Tosha Khana theft case.
Imran Khan, she continued, also lied in the case of 190 million pounds theft case and in the case of cipher.
She also disclosed that the chairman PTI did not disclose correct assets in election returns. The minister said that Imran Khan, had declared three houses in Form B and tax returns of three years.
Imran Khan declared only Rs 500,000 furniture in his 300 kanal house in Bani Gala, 8 kanal house in Zaman Park and his wife’s three kanal house in Bani Gala, she said.
She said that Imran Khan did not declare even a single tola of gold, but honestly declared two goats in his tax returns.
Taking a jibe on Imran Khan, she said a thief was on the run for 15 months trying to hide his theft.
She said that no one could compare the arrest of Imran Khan with the arrest of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan was gifted watches, diamond sets, rings etc but he sold the watch before buying it from Tosha Khana and could not provide any proof of selling the watch in the entire proceedings.
The minister opined that today, the public found out the real reasons behind the May 9 incidents as a thief was running away from accountability.
She reminded that whenever Imran Khan appeared before the court of law, the judicial complex was attacked, when the police went to Zaman Park with a warrant, they were attacked with petrol bombs. The vehicles of the police and rangers were torched by the PTI goons when they went to Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore on the courts directives.
She said that Imran’s punishment in 190 million pound theft case, foreign funding case, the Cipher issue concoction was still pending.
The minister said effort was being made to compare the arrest of Imran Khan with the arrest of Nawaz Sharif.
She said Nawaz Sharif was a three-time elected Prime Minister, whose name was not even mentioned in Panama leaks but Imran Khan accused him. Only on allegations, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif wrote a letter to the Supreme Court and presented himslef for accountability, she said.
The federal minister said that Nawaz Sharif gave an account of 40 years of his family, even provided documents of his late father. When no evidence could be traced against Nawaz Sharif in Panama, he was disqualified for not taking salary from his son’s firm and barred from contesting the election, even he was removed from the party presidency, she expressed.
If the government had the intention to arrest Imran Khan politically, Shehbaz Sharif had the same authority that Imran Khan (mis) used as the chief executive of the country, she said.
“If we had to make a false case, we would have used NAB and FIA to arrest Imran Khan on the first day after coming to power”, she added.