PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Monday said another “lie” of PTI Chairman Imran Khan had been unveiled after the government “exposed” the PTI’s recent Twitter trends.
“Imported government not acceptable (imported hukumat na manzoor)” has been trending for several days after Khan was voted out of power on April 10 – making him the first prime minister to be removed through the no-confidence motion.
“Another IK lie exposed, another conspiracy unveiled,” Maryam said in a tweet after PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb revealed that the top trend was being run through bots.
Maryam said: “Turns out that the slander campaigns against the state institutions and lies about international conspiracy were churned out and spread by no more than a handful of people employing hundreds of fake accounts and bots.” Maryam said Khan led the Twitter campaign and claimed the government had “tracked down” the criminal ring from PTI. “More facts will surface in the coming days. No lie will save you Now!”
In a press conference earlier in the day, Aurangzeb said the PTI was running trends to malign state institutions, build a false narrative, and mislead the people of Pakistan.
The PML-N spokesperson said the trends instigated hate speech and online violence. In a day, the trend was initiated by 924 Twitter handles, while only 709 of these accounts were active ones. Of the 924 Twitter handles, 532 Twitter accounts were bots.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said ex-prime minister Imran Khan wanted a reference against the chief election commissioner (CEC), as he was about to be sentenced in the foreign funding case.
Addressing a presser, Marriyum accused Imran of lying to the nation for the past four years. She said the man sitting on the prime minister’s chair was lying so no one could question his performance.
“Imran Khan wants a reference against the CEC so that the foreign funding case doesn’t get decided within a month,” she said. “But they can’t do anything now, as the cases are set to be decided within the next 30 days.”
She said Imran’s “theft” had been exposed as the 16 accounts that he hid had now come to the fore, says a news report.
According to her, illegal funding had proven and the evidence was now available, and the former premier will be facing sentence now. She alleged that funding for the cancer hospital went to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s accounts.
“An amount of $7 million pertaining to the foreign funding wasn’t declared.” She noted that PTI leader Asad Umar had filed a petition against the documents to be made public.
She asked whether Imran Khan’s next narrative will be that the CEC had hatched a conspiracy against him.
Aurangzeb said the foreign funding case contained documented evidence of Imran’s “crimes” and asked the latter to cease his campaign against the state institutions.
“An amount of over Rs20 million was transferred to personal accounts.”
Last week, the Islamabad High Court had ordered the Election Commission to decide the PTI foreign funding case within a month.
On January 4 this year, an ECP scrutiny committee report had unearthed that the party had concealed several accounts and around Rs310 million between 2008 and 2013 from the electoral body.
It had further disclosed that the PTI received $44,000 from 88 foreign donors during this period. The undisclosed accounts have been mentioned in a report by the State Bank of Pakistan. The scrutiny committee had also included its analysis of the bank accounts in the report.
Marriyum said the nation had to decide whether they wanted to stand by those who were meticulously pursuing the agenda of development and prosperity, or to be misled by the propaganda of Imran Khan, reports APP.
She expressed optimism that people were prudent enough to finally opt for the well-wishers of Pakistan.
She said for the last four years, people were made to believe in fake development and progress at the cost of public money.
“Fake papers were waved in the Press Information Department (PID), whereas the former prime minister kept on leveling allegations against political opponents on daily basis,” she added.
The nation, she said, would soon know about the flawed policies of PTI government that did great harm to the country. High inflation, unemployment, ruined economy, mishandling of the Kashmir issue, and foreign policy misadventure were the hallmarks of the last four years, she lamented.
Marriyum said Imran Khan started to target state institutions in a bid to cover up his sheer incompetence and lackluster performance. He even did not spare the judges who had exposed his unconstitutional moves.
The PML-N leader said for eight years, ugly tactics were employed to hamper the foreign funding case proceedings.
The PTI did receive funding from 16 foreign accounts of companies and individuals from Dubai, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Norway, Australia, and other European and Middle Eastern countries. An Indian citizen Romita Shetty was also among the PTI’s financiers, Marriyum said.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had already pinpointed all the details even during Imran Khan’s tenure, she added. She said the party and its leadership would have to be made accountable for any foreign funding.
The PTI was already creating hype over a ‘conspiracy’ launched against its government by the United States, and it would jump on another ‘conspiracy’ against Imran Khan through the ECP, she added.
The PTI, however, never declared the funds it had received either from foreigners or Pakistani nationals, Marriyum said.
The PML-N leader said Imran Khan had deceived the overseas Pakistanis in the name of charity as their donations were used for party politics. He even did not spare the donations received for his cancer hospital.
He even received funding from Canada and New Zealand as well, but did not declare the funding from 88 people in the 349 Canadian and New Zealander companies, she further said.
From all these accounts, USD 73.23 million, and PKR 852 million were deposited to Imran Khan’s personal accounts and were never declared, Marriyum said.
According to the SBP data, seven accounts were not declared in 2008 and 2009 whereas only two accounts were declared in 2009 and 2010, she added.
In 2010-11, she said, 13 accounts were not declared; in 2011-12, 14 accounts were hidden and only two were declared; and in 2012-13, 14 accounts were undeclared and only four were declared. All the foreign funding came into those accounts which amounted to 7 million dollars, which was never declared, said Marriyum.
Similarly, she said, Imran Khan retained Toshakhana gifts worth Rs140 million by paying only Rs30 million. In 2018, one had to submit 50% of the total value of the gifts, but Imran Khan formed a committee by himself to cut the share from 50% to 20%, Marriyum remarked.
The PML-N spokesperson concluded by saying that Imran Khan deemed that the people were too simplistic to figure out his corruption. “Solid evidence against Imran Khan is available and he will face the music for misdeeds and corrupt practices,” conduct.”
