AAMIR SAEED

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broad-casting Senator Pervaiz Rashid has said that foreign remittances and revenue collection have gone up despite Imran Khan’s call for civil disobedience.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the minister said PTI Chief Imran Khan was levelling baseless allegations against the government on a daily basis, but he [Imran] can’t prove them in courts.”

He said the latest allegation was that 17 bodies of those who died in clashes with police on the Constitution Avenue last month had been hidden by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

Rashid said that Tahirul Qadri got registered an FIR on Monday in which the number of deaths was mentioned. He asked Imran to identify the bodies that were allegedly concealed by the PIMS administration.

The Information Minister said Imran also alleged that 2013 elections were rigged and that ballot papers were printed at Urdu Bazaar, Lahore. He added the printers against whom Imran levelled allegations had moved the court.

Imran was also making allegations against former Chief Justice of Pakistan, former Army Chief and a Brigadier of Military Intelligence and claimed that a speech by Nawaz Sharif on the election day changed the election results, he said.

The minister said the government’s negotiations team was asking the PTI team to include these allegations in Terms of Reference of the proposed Judicial Commission that would investigate vote-rigging allegations but PTI was not ready to do so.

He regretted that on the one hand Imran condemned those who attacked the Parliament House and PTV Headquarters, but on the other hand he himself led “gangsters” to get them released from police.

According to him, the governments are formed on the basis of mandate of the people and not on the criteria as to who can gather more people at a place.

He questioned why Imran concealed his London meeting with Tahirul Qadri and also his meetings with him in Pakistan.

To a question, the minister said the government wanted to handle a political issue politically and was avoiding the use of other means to expose real face of Imran before people of Pakistan. He said the government was aware of the ‘London conspiracy’ but even then it respected appeals of the civil society and allowed the ‘long march’ to reach Islamabad.

He also said that two initial demands of Imran were accepted by the government before ‘long march’.  These pertained to constitution of a judicial commission to probe allegations of rigging and setting up of parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.  Similarly, Tahirul Qadri left Lahore with only one demand to get an FIR registered against the Prime Minister. Although two FIRs have now been registered against the Prime Minister, the two leaders are not ready to leave sit-ins, according to the minister.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator said that no independent organisation or media source confirmed Imran Khan’s rigging allegations. He said that Imran was just trying to malign the elections because if he had any proofs he would have submitted them to courts.

He said Imran had levelled allegations against former Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and former judge of Supreme Court Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday. He said that Imran had also levelled allegations against some journalists. “Imran Khan should prove his allegations against journalists or should take them back immediately,” stressed the federal minister. Information Minister said he would defend journalists being Minister for Information and Broadcasting. “We had abolished secret fund immediately after coming into power,” he said. “PML-N ended the culture of awarding plots,” he added.

“Why does Imran Khan not respond to Javed Hashmi’s allegations? Why does he not issue a show cause notice to his party’s president,” asked Pervaiz Rashid.

He said that sit-ins in Islamabad had inflicted a huge loss on the country’s economy and education sector.