PM calls out Imran for 'maligning state institutions'

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday the politics of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan, was defined by his blatant lies, maligning the army without proof and using religion for political gains.

Shehbaz took to the twitter in response to a social media post of Imran, in which the PTI chairman sought answers to his questions from the prime minister. Shehbaz said Imran should answer his questions.

“I have no doubt that your [Imran Khan’s] politics is defined by blatant lies, untruths, U-turns, and vicious attacks on institutions,” Shehbaz said in his tweet, posing counter-questions to Imran.

He added that Imran, while on a trial for corruption, was claiming legitimacy to overturn the legal and political system. “Bending the judiciary to your whims and behaving as if rules don’t apply to you,” he said.

On Monday, Imran said in his tweet that he was asking the prime minister to answer his questions in the wake of “two assassination attempts” on him “in the last few months”.

He asked whether he [Imran] had the right to nominate those, he felt, were responsible for assassination attempts, and why the country’s premier intelligence agency took over the Judicial Complex in Islamabad on the eve of his appearance there on March 18.

Shehbaz said on the microblogging website that maligning the Pakistan Army as an institution was a recurring pattern in Imran’s politics following his removal from the government in April last year.

Referring to the gun attack on Imran in November last year, Shehbaz asked: “Did you not resort to constant mud-slinging of the leadership of the army & intelligence agency much before the Wazirabad attack?”

Read Imran asks ISPR to 'listen carefully' as he calls out senior military official again

He pointed out that the PTI chief refused the government’s offer of cooperation and boycotted the legal proceedings, adding that Imran was never interested in finding the truth about the attack but used the condemnable incident for petty political objectives.

“What legal route did you adopt other than hurling threats & making baseless allegations almost on a daily basis?” the prime minister posed another question to the former prime minister.

“At whose behest a savage social media campaign against the martyrs of the armed forces was launched after the helicopter crash [last year]. Which party did the troll brigade belong to that mocked the martyrs,” he asked.

Continuing, the prime minister said that maligning the martyrs was a new low and “unimaginable in our politics” and culture. “With these subversive and treacherous acts on your part, do we need an enemy?” he said.

Shehbaz asked: “Who used religion for political purposes by describing the political agitation in religious terms, a cunning and self-serving attempt at exposing political opponents to violence at the hands of your supporters.”

He said that PTI leaders “condoned, justified, and even celebrated” the harassment and intimidation of an official delegation, including a female minister, in the courtyard of Prophet’s Mosque (Peace be upon Him) by “disregarding all norms of reverence”.

In response to Imran’s assertion that “it is time … to declare law of the jungle”, Shehbaz said: “I advise you not to go there, for the facts are often bitter and disastrous. Let us keep this for another day,” he said.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)