People rejected politics of immorality, say ministers

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid on Monday said the people had rejected the politics of immorality and now the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan should come out of its rigging phobia.
Talking to a private TV channel, Khawaja Asif said democracy had steered away from risky waters and it was now going through the process of consolidation.
“The by-election result has come out in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The outcome is no different from that of 2013, Khan must accept this result and put an end to politics of aggression,” he asserted.
Taking a jibe at the PTI chief, the defence minister said there was no cure to the mindset of the PTI chief. “I am willing to get him treated abroad but such people are also provided treatment at the Jail Road in Lahore,” he said.
Asif also said that the dark period triggered by the October 12, 1999, coup was now over.
“A bright sun has risen on October 12, 2015. Democracy is gaining roots in the country while institutions are working in their respective domains. A new era of prosperity has begun. Today democracy stands sheltered from all the shadows of dangers,” the defence minister maintained.
Meanwhile, talking to media persons in Islamabad, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that the result of October 11 by-elections in NA-122 had validated the results of 2013 general elections and Imran Khan’s claims of rigging had been proved wrong.
The minister said the PTI had been claiming for the past two-and-a-half years that parliament was bogus as it came into being after the 2013 general elections which were stolen. He said the votes tally of the candidates of the PML-N and PTI was almost the same to 2013. About the Okara by-elections, he said, no PML-N leader or worker went there for the election campaign and its candidate still secured 45,000 votes while the PTI candidate, despite Imran’s public meetings, could bag only 7,000 votes.
Moreover, he said, both the winner and runner-up candidates of NA-144 were from the PML-N and the winning candidate in this constituency had himself issued a statement after the victory that he was a PML-N worker.
About Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the PTI chairman had said he had taken 50,000 bogus votes in the general elections but the result of NA-122 by-elections had proved yet again that the 2013 elections were free and fair.
The minister said that first the Judicial Inquiry Commission rejected the allegations of Imran Khan and now the people of NA 122 had rejected his claims.
The results of NA-122, Okara, Mandi Bahauddin and Haripur demonstrate how the PML-N got 150 million votes in the 2013 elections. He further said that Imran Khan should now quit the negative attitude and stop making the election results controversial as it was tantamount to defaming the democratic institutions and rejecting the mandate given by the masses. On the black day of October 12, 1999 when an elected government was toppled, the information minister said the past was history now while the present government wants to make Pakistan a developed state so that our next generation can have a better future.