close
Friday March 29, 2024

Opposition has already conceded its defeat: Shibli Faraz

Opposition parties have gathered under banner of PDM not for public interest, but to cover their corruption, information minister says

By News Desk
October 17, 2020
Minister for Information Shibli Faraz speaks at an event. Faraz has said the opposition parties are out against an honest prime minister who remains firm and steadfast in his stance. Photo: File

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE: Information Minister Shibli Faraz has said the opposition parties have already accepted their defeat over his challenge of filling the stadium.

He said the opposition parties have gathered under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) not for public interest, but to cover their corruption. Speaking in the Senate Friday, the minister said he had challenged the opposition parties to fill the Jinnah Stadium Gujranwala and they stand exposed now by converting half of the stadium into a stage.

The minister said the opposition parties are out against an honest prime minister who remains firm and steadfast in his stance of ridding the country of the corrupt elements that destroyed the institutions and the economy.

Shibli Faraz said the opposition parties which ruled the country over the last 40 and 50 years systematically destroyed the institutions. He said the approach of opposition parties is not democratic, but dictatorial in nature. The people are fully cognizant of these family limited companies. He said the opposition parties will fail in their designs, and their politics have ended now.

The minister said the country today is faced with inflation like situation because of the flawed policies of the past. He, however, said we will put the country and its institutions on solid footing. He said inflation is also temporary and the situation will improve in the next three to four weeks.

Shibli Faraz assured that the good days are ahead as the country is being taken towards the path of development. Meanwhile, Shibli Faraz said in a tweet that the Gujranwala rally and the formation of the PDM is proof that only Imran Khan is standing in the arena against the status quo.

“Imran Khan and the people stand on one side and the corrupt mafia on the other,” Shibli said. Meanwhile, Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan claimed that the opposition parties have spent Rs1.03 billion on Gujranwala rally.

In an interview with a private TV channel, the provincial minister asked from where this has come. He further said that coronavirus has badly affected the country, as two more Punjab ministers have been tested positive.

The PTI leader said that the opposition parties were allowed to hold protest while following strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent the COVID-19 spread.

He said coalition of opposition parties is like a mixed pickle. “We can find those involved in nepotism, money laundering, fake telegraphic transfers, fake bank accounts and destroyers of country’s economy in these parties,” he said.

Chohan further warned that if the conspiracies of opposition parties continue, it will have worst effect on the economy. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, Chohan said that opposition's political ‘Lucky Irani Circus’ contains forced Bhuttos and the political kids of affluent families who became billionaires in their childhood.

He said their ancestors have been calling each other thieves, robbers, thugs, con-men and such other negative titles for the last three to four decades. “Today, with great stubbornness and hypocrisy, they are declaring each other noble democratic souls.”

He further stated that at Gujranwala rally, that video of Asif Zardari’s public meeting of 2017 should be played in which he was declaring Nawaz Sharif a court absconder and thief of whole nation. He said the video of Bilawal Zardari's December 2016 speech in which he called Nawaz Sharif a national and international thief and dacoit should also be aired. Chohan said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, known as “Maulana Sharif Zardari” due to his political activities now a days as the head of PDM, used to consider Nawaz Sharif a security risk for Pakistan and regarded woman rule “Haraam” for the country, now thinks it lawful.

Chohan said that when the corruption of ‘All Pakistan Lootmaar Association’ was exposed, it joined hands. He said that in the 80s and 90s, PPP and the PML-N were worst enemies of each other.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said the opposition parties placed the stage by occupying half space of the ground. He said the opposition parties are afraid of their defeat. “It was only Imran Khan who had gathered so many people at Minar-e-Pakistan for PTI rally,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Adviser to PM on Accountability and Interior Barrister Shahzad Akbar said expediencies of politics have forced PML-N to make alliance with former president Asif Ali Zardari – the person once they publicly claimed dragging on the roads of Larkana.

The adviser tweeted that PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif wanted to emulate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and eminent poet Habib Jalib, respectively.