Imran is scared of Shehbaz’s ability to work: Marriyum

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Wednesday said Imran Khan is desperate for early elections because he fears PM Shehbaz Sharif’s proven abilities that could take on the disaster created by four years of PTI mess and get Pakistan back on the road to progress and development.

Addressing a media briefing at Press Information Department (PID), she said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the second meeting of the cabinet in which the entire cabinet strongly condemned the attack on Chinese nationals in Karachi University.

It was also decided in the meeting that the entire security operandi would be reviewed regarding the Chinese nationals in Pakistan, in addition to overall security of the state. The interior ministry gave a briefing and in the light of inputs, a new security plan is being considered regarding CPEC, Chinese and other strategic partners working in Pakistan.

It was decided that the interior minister would visit all the provinces which would help review the security of the country, she said. The preliminary investigation regarding the Karachi attack has already been started and the Chinese embassy has been assured that the investigation would be carried out on war-footings and they would be updated on every step on the way, she added.

Marriyum said it was also decided in the meeting that the National Action Plan (NAP) would also be reviewed by the prime minister while an emergency meeting of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) had been called.

PM Shehbaz Sharif also directed the interior ministry to work with all the provinces to review NAP and present a comprehensive plan to curb the recent rise in terrorist attacks in Pakistan, she added.

In addition to this, the meeting also decided to review the rule 2020 regarding the bureaucracy as its purpose is only harassing, politicisation and arm-twisting of the bureaucracy of Pakistan.

A cabinet committee in this regard had been constituted which included Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarrar and Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman and Khawaja Saad Rafique, which would submit a report in two weeks.

The cabinet meeting also decided to hand over the services of EOBI Chairman Shakeel Mangrego to the Establishment Division. The minister went on to say that Shehbaz Sharif was also given a briefing by the Power Division and was told that within two weeks, majority of off-the-grid power plants were brought online and remaining power plants would be made functional.

She said the fuel supply to the plants would also be restored by May 7. Currently, 18,727MW electricity is available with a shortfall between 500 and 2,000MW which would also be eliminated shortly.

She said there was headway made in curbing diesel hoarding, she told the media. Talking about Imran Khan, she said he has once again hopped onto his container and is harping on the same mantra over and over again.

She said even after four years of the most vicious political victimisation campaign, after four years of fake cases, after four years of all government records and resources used and abused, and after four years of being embarrassed at all courts, which vindicated the opposition leaders and granted them bails in every case, Imran continued his repetitive rants and ramblings of calling the opposition thieves and corrupt.

The minister said, “If this corruption was so obvious and such an open-and-shut case, why Imran did not bring all that so-called looted wealth of the nation back in four long years. Why could he not prove corruption despite all record of NAB, FIA, ARU and even UK’s NCA? Why does Imran not feel ashamed of repeating same lies over and over again? The people of Pakistan are questioning Imran over his false corruption narrative.” They are asking him why he did not prove any corruption with all his abuse of power for four years. "This is all because it was a big lie then and it is a big lie now,” she said.

“The foreign conspiracy lie, the corruption lie is all a strategy to avoid being held accountable for the disastrous rule of PTI,” she maintained.

“It is a smokescreen by Imran to hide the insane inflation, the uncontainable corruption and the unbearable unemployment caused by the Imran-led PTI government,” She said and Imran is calling for early elections because he is scared of Shehbaz Sharif’s performance as the prime minister because he knows that just in two weeks, the price of sugar has been brought down from Rs85 to Rs70 per kg, because Imran knows that over just two weeks, bag of flour is down from Rs550 to Rs400, because Imran knows that the laborers who couldn’t use metro because of his incompetence are now using metro as affordable transport.

She said it is laughable that Imran was claiming to be the flag-bearer of media freedom after censoring, taking channels and programmes off-air, threatening, getting journalists fired en masse, harassing, attacking, abducting and shooting of journalists who criticised his government.

Imran, she said, had the audacity of claiming that he was being blacked out by media, which was totally false. The truth was the people of Pakistan had blacked out Imran due to his lies and hypocrisy.

Responding to a question regarding safety of journalists in Pakistan, she said the government would work with media owners and media organisations to formulate an effective system and protocol to ensure the safety and security of the journalists.

She also assured that the government would also make sure that the concerns regarding implementation of the wage board award and about the payment of the salaries of the journalists should be addressed.