ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (APP):Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was trying to divert public’s attention from his foreign funding and Tosha Khana case by playing a ‘toxic game’ against the state institutions which included a “despicable” social media campaign against the military martyrs.
“Imran Khan cannot divert the attention of the nation from foreign funding which was used to weaken the country’s defense. Foreign agent Imran Khan submitted false affidavits with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for five years,” the minister said while addressing a press conference here.
Castigating Imran Khan, she said that for four years, the country was ruled by an “incompetent” and “inefficient” Prime Minister, who plundered national resources ruthlessly and deprived the people of job opportunities by implementing bad and anti-poor policies.
She said the PTI had been declared foreign-aided party by the ECP for receiving funding from foreigners during a period of five years (2008 to 2013).
According to the ECP’s verdict, she said the PTI received prohibited funding from 351 foreign companies and 34 foreign nationals.
“Imran Khan has also taken prohibited funding from companies in Pakistan which was undeclared,” she maintained.
She said as Imran Khan had disgraced the PTI, it was high time for the workers to ask him why he turned it into a foreign-aided party.
She said the investigation of the funding received by the PTI from foreign nationals after 2013 was yet to be done.
However, the FIA was investigating the source and utilization of the funding received during the said period.
The minister lashed out at Imran Khan for implementing a conspiracy to damage the country in exchange of the foreign funds.
As regards the PTI’s social media campaign against the state institutions, she said Imran Khan ran a “dirty drive” against the martyrs of helicopter crash through his trolls.
Marriyum said Imran Khan’s Chief of Staff read an “obnoxious transcript” on ARY News channel which was authored by Imran Khan himself.
“Red lines were crossed in this transcript as they (PTI leadership) had planned to incite rebellion in the Armed Forces of Pakistan”, she said.
The minister said the ARY news channel allowed Shahbaz Gill to read that script for an uninterrupted 15 minutes.
She opined that Imran Khan was fully aware that he had been caught while doing foreign funding and the PTI was declared a foreign-funded party. Genuine PTI workers today were very angry by this tag.
The minister said that yesterday when Imran Khan was hurling allegations on others, he should have told how much money he took from the foreigners.
She said that Arif Naqvi was Imran Khan’s front man who collected funds in the name of charity which were used by Imran for political purposes.
She said that four employees of PTI Secretariat namely Tahir Iqbal, Mohammad Arshad, Nauman Afzal and Mohammad Rafiq had recorded their statements and disclosed that blank cheques were taken from them and they had no idea where this foreign funding came from and where it was spent.
The minister asked whether the money taken from 351 companies was spent on making a compromise on the Kashmir, destroying the country’s economy, rendering the youth jobless, committing robberies in the country and weakening the country’s defense.
The minister said that due to Imran’s policies Pakistan’s relations with many friendly countries turned sour.