Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Ministers still criticize the head of the PTI, but they want to put off a political war for the sake of the people.
Leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) asked workers and supporters to take to the streets to protest the possible arrest of former prime minister and party leader Imran Khan. The ruling coalition asked for calm.
After the PTI leader was charged with terrorism, his supporters kept going to his hometown of Bani Gala, where he still lives. At the same time, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif kept talking about progress and prosperity.
“Anything that goes off this path,” he said, “is against the people.”
In a less subtle way, Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique asked all political parties to temporarily put aside their differences and work together to help the “millions of Pakistanis who are suffering from the damage of floods.”
Ahsan Iqbal, the Minister for Planning and Development, compared the PTI leader to Hiter, Mir Jafar, Stalin, and Mussolini. Ahsan Iqbal made fun of Imran’s slogan, “true freedom,” which he said showed “hypocrisy.”
Rana Sanaullah, the Interior Minister, was upset by Imran Khan’s “threats” to police officers and a female judge in Islamabad. He slammed Imran for being an “instigator.”
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb also called Imran a “foreign agent” who has “become a threat to Pakistan and its security,” she said.
“By challenging national institutions and the authority of the state, they are inciting the people to violence, lawlessness, rebellion, and riots,” she said, accusing him of wanting “civil war in the country.”
Hina Parvez Butt, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), also criticized Imran Khan for “threatening [ing] the judges and then going to them for pre-arrest bails.”
She also seemed to back up social media rumors that Imran Khan had left his home in Bani Gala, and she made fun of PTI supporters for being “naive” enough to “guard the palace” without him.
At the same time, Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of the PTI who has since left the group, agreed with the other party’s criticisms of Imran Khan.
He said the party was wrong for “threatening [ing] government officials,” but he also said the government was wrong for not doing anything because of “political compulsions.”
