- Attaullah Tarar condemns PTI for harming Pakistan's interests.
- He says that the sole purpose of hiring lobbyists was to defame the country.
- The minister says that the law will take its course in case of encryption.
ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday criticized Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan for “orchestrating” a code drama for personal interests, saying the party hired a lobbying firm for the congressional hearing.
The minister's comments came after Donald Lu, the State Department's top official for South and Central Asia, told a congressional panel that accusations leveled against him of plotting a conspiracy were a lie.
“These accusations, this conspiracy theory, is a lie. It is a complete falsehood,” Lu said, testifying before a House Foreign Affairs Committee subcommittee examining Pakistan's democracy and its relations with the United States.
He also urged Pakistani authorities to investigate reported irregularities in last month's general election and to repeat voting in affected constituencies if they found credible evidence of interference.
Responding to the comments made by the US diplomat, Tarar said the PTI chairman's deception and hypocrisy have been exposed to the entire world today when Donald Lu testified before Congress and called the encryption a complete falsehood.
Condemning the PTI conspiracy in the strongest terms, the federal information minister lashed out at the party for its anti-state measures, including the May 9 riots and protests outside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters, for derailing the talks. of Pakistan with the lender on the latest review of the stand-by agreement.
“The PTI hired lobbyists in the United States for a congressional hearing on the so-called regime change conspiracy, but its leader could not evade divine justice,” he said, citing a proverb “man proposes and God disposes.”
He said the hiring of lobbyists in the United States for congressional hearings was solely aimed at defaming the country, but it was the PTI founder who was ultimately declared an “outright liar.”
The minister said the American diplomat had not only exposed the “drama of numbers” but also expressed satisfaction over the credibility of the general elections as well as the empowerment of women in Pakistan during the proceedings.
On the other hand, he said that the PTI went to great lengths just to double down on its false narrative on encryption that severely damaged Pakistan's diplomatic relations with other countries.
He said Pakistan's history rarely suggests cases where a person jeopardizes national interests just to satisfy his ego.
The PTI founder waved a white paper at a public meeting and claimed that his government was being overthrown as a result of a foreign conspiracy, the minister said, accusing him of misleading the entire nation and inflicting serious damage on the country.
Today he was humiliated before the entire world, which was broadcast on all international media channels, he added.
The minister criticized the PTI leader for poisoning the minds of the youth. He got nothing from the lobby, from the smear campaigns against the country and from the orchestration of a conspiracy against the people, Tarar added.
He reiterated the government's commitment to national interests and promised all-out measures to protect the country's interests.
To a question, he said the law would take its course in the encryption case being heard in the high court and at the appeal stage.
He said that the cipher case was open and shut, which showed how the country's enemies were worthy of a conspiracy and, in fact, also penalized for that matter.
