Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday fired off another broadside at his predecessor Imran Khan, calling him a “fraud and a liar” as he excoriated the PTI chief for “bidding in the PM House”.
“Pakistan’s prime minister was bidding [for people] in the PM house,” PM Shehbaz said outside Special Central Court in Lahore.
“He had set up a market of buying and selling and consciences were being sold. Could there be a bigger crime than this by a sitting PM,” the prime minister asked as he referred to the recent audio leaks in which Imran can be allegedly heard speaking buying “five”.
Yesterday two more damning audio tapes purportedly featuring the PTI chief came to the fore, suggesting his plans for horse-trading of parliamentarians and using a “US cipher” to brand those who would vote against him in April’s confidence vote as traitors.
“He himself is saying that he bought five votes, from where did the money come, such a big crime, what will be a bigger crime than a PM saying ‘I have bought five votes’.
“From where did you arrange the money, from the national treasury or Farah Gogi and others giving jewels? From where?”
Both audio leaks, which have not been independently verified by Dawn.com and the veracity of which cannot be authenticated, seemed to be from April when Imran was in power and the no-confidence motion — that later led to his ouster — had been tabled in the National Assembly.
After the leaks emerged on Friday, the PTI chief claimed in an afternoon rally that the PML-N was behind a “new game of fake audios”, whereas other party leaders said the leaked audios were a work of “cut and paste” in which bits of different conversations could be joined together.
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz said in a tweet later that the leaks had “exposed” Khan’s “hypocrisy” and his “anti-state actions” had made him unfit for high office.
Speaking to the media outside the accountability court today, Shehbaz said that the PTI chief was answerable to the nation. “I have proved through facts that you are a fraud and liar.
“You conspired against the nation […] the audios that have surfaced have shown your drama and lies.”
The premier went on to lambaste Imran for “lying day and night and bringing disrepute to Pakistan”.
“The way our relations with the US were destroyed […] we are now making efforts to mend relations. I have never ever seen a bigger conspiracy against Pakistan […] he is an example of the worst kind of mindset in the world.
“And I feel compelled to say that I have not seen in my life a bigger liar, conspirer, deceiver, and one with a fraud mentality,” he reiterated.
PM Shehbaz then urged the nation to think. “When we came into the government, we were at the brink of default. But we prevented that […] these are the bitter truths.”
