Iqbal vows to take action against rioters

Planning minister says Imran tried to cause dent in national progress for personal gains

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Monday vowed that there will be action against all those who have been involved in the riot in order to establish writ of the state.

“(PTI Chairman) Imran Khan, for personal gains, always attempted to cause a dent in national progress and sabotage development activities taking place in the country,” the planning minister said while addressing a news conference.

"Since 2002, this person has a track record of no constructive work. Every time Imran gets angry, he goes out of parliament,” Iqbal added.

He questioned whenever Pakistan started progressing at a steady pace, why Imran always fanned lawlessness and caused political instability as well as agitation.

He said the resignations and the assemblies' dissolution had not served Imran’s purpose of collapsing the system, adding the only option that remained with him was to launch riots for creating anarchy and lawlessness.

"Now, when Pakistan is trying to come out of his government's failed economic policies which caused financial uncertainty by restoring economic contacts with the world and agreement with the IMF ... he is again attempting to sabotage the national progress and economic uplift," he said.

Ahsan Iqbal said Imran, who considered himself the champion and founder of the justice movement and “biggest scholar” of western democracy, was committing blatant violations of rule of law and the justice system.

"The way the state is being attacked, the federal capital and provincial capital (Lahore) were subjected to riots in an attempt to create anarchy; it has no precedent in the history of Pakistan."