Federal Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Monday laid the blame for the Faisalabad mess at the door of Imran Khan’s provocative speeches.
He told a press conference that Imran has become nuisance for the country, its economy and poor people, adding that PTI’s tigers have performed their role in Faisalabad which caused death of one innocent worker.
People of Faisalabad, he said, had rejected Imran’s dictation to close their businesses on Monday.
The information minister maintained that the PTI workers, armed with sticks, first tried to get schools closed and then to disrupt traffic by burning tyres. They failed in their effort, he said.
In desperation, he said, the PTI activists started forcibly closing the shops and businesses.
He clarified that Monday’s scuffle and exchange of harsh words happened between the PTI workers and the local business community, and not the PML-N activists.
He added that neither the PML-N asked its party men to stop the PTI from holding the rally nor was it interested in launching attack on its workers.
Pervaiz Rashid cautioned that PTI’s attack on former law minister Rana Sanaullah’s home might result in reprisal attacks on Imran’s residences in Lahore and Islamabad.
The information minister ridiculed Imran’s plans A to D. ‘A’ stands for attack on democracy, which starting 10 months ago has flopped; plan ‘B’ stands for besieging democracy, which began on August 14 and has also fizzled out; and plan ‘C’ stands for chaos. He added that anarchy was tried as a weapon in Faisalabad but it too failed.
He predicted that Khan’s plan ‘D’, which stands for destruction of democracy, will also meet the same fate.
Pervaiz Rashid went on to say that Imran must show moral courage and accept responsibility for Faisalabad’s incidents, adding that firstly Khan announced to shut down the city but later Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the PTI leader, rebutted his statement and asked that only peaceful protest would he held.
Instead of feeling embarrassment over his deeds or regret on his conduct in Faisalabad Imran threatened to repeat all this in Lahore, the information minister pointed out.
He stated that it is the government’s liability to investigate and arrest the killer of the deceased man in Faisalabad but the PTI chief instead of showing his support to police has started to play politics on dead bodies.
Both, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek, he said, have settled their political point scoring on dead bodies.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2014.
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