‘Dreams’ of Imran’s wife won’t stand up in court: Bilawal
In a tit-for-tat response to allegations levelled by PTI Chairman Imran Khan against former president Asif Ali Zardari, Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said that former prime minister must realise that every time his wife has a dream, he cannot just come on TV and make accusations against people as “her dreams won’t stand up in court”.
“After terrorist outfits called myself & my party out by name in direct threats, Imran has now made false accusations against my father former president AZ (Asif Zardari),” Bilawal wrote on his official Twitter handle.
He said that Imran’s statements have increased threats for his father, his family and his party and they will take them “seriously” given the history, the PPP chairman said in an apparent reference to his mother former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi in 2007.
“We are exploring legal response to Imran’s latest defamatory and dangerous accusations. In the past he threatened my father that he was ‘in the crosshairs of his gun’. His and his associates’ history as both sympathisers and facilitators of terrorists are well documented,” he said.
When in power, Bilawal said, Imran released terrorists and arrested democrats and handed over Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to terrorist organization.
“His party funds terrorist groups to this day. All of this will be taken into account if any attack were to take place against myself, my father, or my party.”
The foreign minister said that Imran’s latest accusation that his family has any association with a terrorist organisation or that they would employ them to cause him harm not only defies logic but exposes them all to an increased threat.
“PPP will challenge him. We cannot let populist fiction dominate our discourse, poison our politics & damage our democracy. We will not tolerate being victims of terrorist & put up with propaganda from their political frontmen,” he concluded.
Bilawal said, “We [PPP] are exploring legal response to Imran’s latest defamatory & dangerous accusations. In the past, he threatened my father that he was ‘in the crosshairs of his gun’.”
He also highlighted the fact that he and his party were called out by name in a recent threat letter by a terrorist outfit.
Bilawal alleged Imran had “released terrorists and arrested democrats” during his tenure, had handed over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to terrorist organisations, and that the PTI still “funds terrorist groups”.
Noting that Imran and his associates’ “history as both sympathisers and facilitators of terrorists” was well-documented, he asserted that all of it would be taken into account if any attack were to take place on him, Zardari, or his party.
The foreign minister castigated the former premier for exposing him and his party to “an increased threat” by making an accusation that “defies logic”.
Vowing to challenge Imran, he asserted, “We cannot let populist fiction dominate our discourse, poison our politics and damage our democracy. We will not tolerate being victims of terrorists and putting up with propaganda from their political frontmen.”
Earlier in the day, PPP senior leaders Nayyar Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar and Qamar Zaman Kaira criticised Imran over his allegations, saying he had “lost his mind” and that they would issue a legal notice demanding him to retract his accusations.
Bukhari said the PPP’s stance is that the allegation made by Imran is “baseless and a lie”. He remarked, “Imran Khan has politically died […] He is afflicted with depression and panic.”
The former Senate chairman said: “In this panic, he keeps on blaming various institutions, whether it is the establishment, the election commission or the former army chief.
“His allegations are never based in reality. If they were, he surely would’ve approached the available forums according to the Constitution and the law but he never went there.”
Bukhari asserted: “In fact, the People’s Party is [ideologically] opposed to physical elimination [as] PPP itself has been its target.”
He then announced that the party would be issuing Imran Khan a legal notice and in it, “we are demanding that he withdraw his statement”. “If he doesn’t, the PPP has the right to approach the forums and courts for civil and criminal proceedings.”
Sitting beside Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar said: “He has said that Zardari sahab has reached an understanding with a terrorist outfit to end Imran Khan. Imran Khan should ask himself — would his enemies hire militants to kill him even though he himself is Taliban Khan.”
He added: “A person, who himself is a patron of militants, is saying a plot to end him has been made by hiring militants tells itself what his mental level is.”
The former senator asserted: “I genuinely believe that Imran Khan has now lost [his] senses, and he’s out of his senses because of the loss of power.”
Citing Imran’s decision to dissolve the Punjab and KP assemblies that were under his party, he said: “If you have lost your mental balance, then it is not the PPP’s or Asif Zardari sahab’s fault.”
Additionally, Kaira said, “We are demanding here today that the nation, the media, the whole civil society should demand Imran Khan to bring forward what information and evidence he has [as] he has made a specific allegation and not said that it is a hearsay”.
He claimed Imran’s politics was “not democratical but fascist”. “Putting his opponents in jail, making allegations, doing character assassination, stirring up mayhem and spreading sensationalism at specific moments […] are weapons of fascism.”
