PTI hired lobbyists for Congress hearing on Pakistan: Tarar | Maqvi News

• Attaullah Tarar condemns PTI for damaging Pakistan’s interest.
• Says hiring of lobbyists was solely meant to malign country.
• Minister says law would take its course in cipher case.

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan for “orchestrating” cipher drama for personal interests, saying the party hired lobbying firm for the Congress hearing.

The minister’s remarks came after Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, told a congressional panel that the allegations levelled against him for hatching a conspiracy were a lie.

“These allegations, this conspiracy theory, is a lie. It is a complete falsehood,” Lu said, testifying to a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee examining Pakistan’s democracy and its relations with the US.

He also urged Pakistani authorities to investigate reported irregularities with last month’s general election and re-run the vote in affected constituencies if it found credible evidence of interference.

In response to the comments made by the US diplomat, Tarar said the PTI chairman’s deceit and hypocrisy have been exposed before the whole world today as Donald Lu testified before Congress and called the cipher a complete falsehood.

Condemning the PTI’s conspiracy in the strongest terms, the federal information minister lashed out at the party for their anti-state moves including the May 9 riots and protests outside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters for derailing Pakistan talks with the lender on the final review of the standby agreement.

“The PTI hired lobbyists in the United States for a congress hearing on the so-called regime change conspiracy, but their leader could not evade the divine justice,” he said citing a proverb “man proposes and God disposes”.

He said hiring of the lobbyists in the US for congressional hearing was solely meant to malign the country, but it was the PTI founder who was declared a “certified liar” in the end.

The minister said the US diplomat had not only exposed the “cipher drama”, but also expressed satisfaction over the credibility of the general election as well as women empowerment in Pakistan during the proceeding.

On the other hand, he said the PTI went to extreme lengths just to double down their false narrative on the cipher which severely damaged Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with other countries.

He said the history of Pakistan suggested seldom such instances where a person jeopardised national interests just to satisfy his ego.

The PTI founder waved a white paper in a public gathering and claimed that his government was being ousted as a result of a foreign conspiracy, the minister said accusing him of misleading the whole nation and inflicting severe damage on the country.

Today, he had been humiliated before the whole world, which was telecast by every international media channel, he added.

The minister called out the PTI leader for intoxicating the minds of the youth. He got nothing from lobbying, running smear campaigns against the country and by orchestrating a conspiracy against the people, Tarar added.

He reiterated the government’s commitment to the national interests vowing all-out measures to protect the interests of the country.

To a query, he said the law would take its course in the cipher case which was being heard in the high court and at the appeal stage.

He said the cipher case was open and shut which showed how the country’s enemies were befitted with a conspiracy and in fact penalised for that matter as well.