ISLAMABAD, May 11 (APP):Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Thursday said during the tenure of Imran Khan as prime minister, his several political adversaries were arrested from the premises of courts but no notice was taken.
He was the first accused in the history of the National Accountability Bureau whose appeal against his physical remand was taken up by the court for hearing within 48 hours of his arrest, she told a press conference.
Marriyum said those who had encouraged terrorists, armed groups and anti-nationalism, would also be called criminals, and “if the fastest relief were given to the criminals like Imran then nobody will be safe from their evil”.
Providing relief to a “terrorist and anti-state person” would encourage and incite others to terrorism, she added.
“Whether anyone who breaks into the house of a judge will be given relief in the same way as that of Imran Khan?” she questioned.
The minister further asked who would provide justice to the patients, police personnel, martyrs and armed forces veterans who were attacked by the “PTI goons” and who would pay for the damage caused to mosques, schools and hospitals.
She said for the last three days, a few hundred armed groups and terrorists had been attacking sensitive institutions and ransacking state properties, mosques, hospitals and schools.
Marriyum said Imran Khan had misappropriated Rs 60 billion of the national exchequer in the name of Al-Qadir Trust case and he was arrested by NAB for interrogation in that regard.
“After his arrest, terrorists and armed groups, who had been persistently incited by the PTI leadership for violence, attacked state and public property across the country,” she maintained.
The minister opined that NAB arrested Imran Khan in a legal way and produced him in the accountability court to get his remand for interrogation.
She said Imran Khan was not the first political leader arrested by NAB as he himself had used the Bureau for the witch hunt of political adversaries. He even did not spare the sisters and daughters of his opponents, including Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Rana Sanaullah, Salman Shehbaz, Hamza Shehbaz, Miftah Ismail and others, who were thrown in jails.
All his opponents were arrested in fake and concocted cases but no court had taken notice of the “avenging practice”, she added.
Marriyum said the “Ladla” had been continuously given special treatment since 2014 and no action was ever taken against him by any court.
She said the police went to Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence for the execution of his arrest warrants, they were greeted with petrol bombs which was a clear manifestation of contempt of court.
In the ensuing violence, she added, many policemen suffered serious injuries, with their official vehicles set on fire. There was chaos in the whole Lahore city because of the vandalism, she said.
Had the courts not ignored impeding the execution of their arrest warrants at that time, the chaotic situation created by the “PTI goons” for the last two days would have been averted, she remarked.
Similarly, she said, disrespect shown to the pictures of the Chief Justice of Pakistan should not have been ignored. Likewise, the courts should have taken notice of Imran’s threats to a respectable female judge, she added.
“Who will provide justice to those (law enforcement agencies’ personnel), who were either martyred and became Ghazis while defending the country’s borders, but they were disrespected and dishonoured by making fun of their sacrifices?” she posed a question.
The minister said on the day of Imran’s arrest, the Lahore Corps Commander’s House was burnt, ambulances were torched after taking out patients and metro-bus stations were set ablaze. Even mosques were not spared.
Had “this terrorist” been taken to task on May 25 last year, the country would not have been burning today, she added.
The minister recalled that the three times elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif was booked in the false case of Panama Papers and he had appeared over 100 times in the courts and presented documents to prove his innocence.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders were arrested and kept in death cells but its workers never resorted to damaging public or private property, she added.
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