Coalition leaders, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Monday condemned former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's "defamatory" statement about the Pakistan army.
"Imran Khan has proved time and again to be an unguided missile for the country, its economy, politics and social cohesion," Bilawal said, urging the PTI chairman to desist from questioning the Pakistan army, reported Geo News.
In a public rally in Faisalabad, the PTI chairman criticized the government, saying that it was delaying the elections to appoint an army chief of its own and that if a "patriotic chief of army staff comes in, he will not spare the incumbent rulers."
Since then, the former prime minister is under fire for targeting the Pakistan army, reported Geo News.
Commenting on Khan's statement, Bilawal said, "Targeting senior officials and handing out certificates of patriotism and traitors for the members of different institutions have been hallmarks of this anarchist."
Meanwhile, Maryam called the PTI chief a "double-dealer" saying that Pakistan will never reel from the shock and "continue to go downhill if he's (Khan) not declared and dealt with as a double-dealer by all the stakeholders including the judiciary."
She further added that Khan should not be treated like a "political leader because he's not," reported Geo News
"He has been launched and funded to wreck and ruin Pakistan and plunge the nation into pits of misery and despair," she wrote on Twitter, adding that he has waged a war on our country by attacking its stability, economy, society, media and now its armed forces.
In his speech at a jalsa in Faisalabad this Sunday, the PTI chairman said the coalition government was stalling the elections as they wanted to "appoint an army chief of their own choice."
The PTI chairman said that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif "feared" a strong and patriotic army chief, who could hold them accountable for the looted money they had stashed abroad, reported Geo News.
The former prime minister said a new army chief was going to be appointed in November this year, and they (Zardari and Nawaz) jointly wanted to appoint a favourite [general] as the next army chief.
Imran Khan alleged that both have committed corruption worth billions, and they wanted to appoint an army chief who could protect them and their corruption.
The PTI chair alleged that PM Shehbaz, his brother Nawaz, and Zardari had been involved in laundering the public money, and the two families had been looting the national exchequer for the last 30 years.
( With inputs from ANI )
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