ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar on Sunday said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) always indulged in protests and sit-ins as the party did not have any positive or constructive agenda.

Talking to the media on Sunday, the minister said that the series of incitement, threats and accusations was the style of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership.

He reminded that in 2014, they attacked the Pakistan Television Corporation building and targeted law-enforcement personnel. The PTI leaders incite people to violence and then run away, the minister said.

He said it was important to inform the nation about what he called facts regarding “baseless” allegations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

Rana Sanaullah accuses the party of bringing Pakistan to brink of default

Mr Tarar said that Mr Gandapur’s allegations were based on lies and concoction as foreign media was invited to KP to give them misleading briefings.

He said Mr Gandapur had claimed the next call of protest or long march will not be peaceful but the question arises as to which of their past protest calls were peaceful. The minister claimed on November 26, they invaded Islamabad with AK-47 rifles, teargas shells, grenades and slingshots.

The PTI first faked 1200 bodies and spread AI-generated fake pictures on social media. “If they were speaking the truth, their leadership would not have given conflicting figures from 12 to 1200 deaths,” the minister said.

He said the wife of PTI founder Bushra Bibi was inciting the workers through her address and posed a question as to why Mr Gandapour and Bushra Bibi ran away leaving their workers alone at D-Chowk.

About Mr Gandapur, Mr Tarar said he was a political and administrative failure as the KP chief minister had failed to manage affairs of the province. The minister said the nation will never forget what the PTI workers did on May 9 and all people involved in arson and violence must face the law of the land. He said that the PTI was spreading propaganda against institutions on social media through its supporters abroad, adding that PTI social media activists had links with anti-Pakistan people including Indians.—APP

Punjab rejected politics of ‘chaos’

Meanwhile, Adviser to Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah has said that the politics of abusing rivals was initiated in 2017 by the PTI, which brought Pakistan — the world’s 30th largest economy at that time — to the brink of default in a matter of a few years. He said that the PML-N is not responsible for inflation and economic crisis in the country.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a new centre of Rescue 1122 in Faisalabad on Sunday, he asserted that had the PML-N not been forced out of the power in 2017, the country would have been among the G20 economies.

Referring to the Nov 26 protest by the PTI, the PM’s aide said that nobody from Punjab took to the streets as they did not like ‘chaos and anarchy’, rather politics of service. “They are still continuing the politics of abuse, protests, chaos, and anarchy. There is no room for this kind of politics in the country. Pakistan was built on the basis of brotherhood, not hatred,” he said, adding that the PTI’s social media made a fuss about the killing of their workers. “Earlier, they used to say that 278 people were killed, then they reduced the figure and now they are claiming that only 12 people were killed,” the PML-N leader said.

Lauding Maryam Nawaz’ government in Punjab, he said that focus of the chief minister’s service is the common man.

With additional input from Tariq Saeed in Toba Tek Singh

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024