Breaking silence after charges of harassment were levelled against him, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan on Thursday alleged that Sharifs’ were behind Ayesha Gulalai in heading the smear campaign against him.
Taking to Twitter to lodge his protest, Imran stated that after seeing their efforts to get him disqualified and their smear campaigns against him fail “PMLN is moving to do what it does best”.
In an interview later in the evening, Imran alleged that the Sharif family was going to such levels to cover their corruption.
“They have been doing such things to cover up their corruption; and Nusrat Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Seeta White and Jemima have all been their victims,” the PTI chief said in an interview to a private news channel.
He added that since Gulalai is a lady, he would not make any more comments.
The PTI on Wednesday served the estranged MNA – who levelled harassment allegations against Imran – with a show-cause notice, suspended her basic party membership and demanded she resign from her National Assembly seat.
Imran explained that Gulalai had come to Bani Gala a day before she held a press conference on Sunday and had asked for the NA-1 ticket. “I reprimanded her for her poor performance in the National Assembly and absence in the party meetings,” he maintained.
He said if a woman felt that an inappropriate message was sent to her, she should have stopped meeting and posing for photographs.
“I do not care for such things. I have a firm belief that honour is in the hands of Allah, and if I am wrong I shall suffer devastation and if someone has blamed me wrongly, they will be ruined.”
The PTI chief went on to say, “I have worked with many women in Shaukat Khanum [Memorial Hospital] and other projects but never has any woman levelled such allegation against me.”
He said that in the beginning, Gulalai’s performance was very good, but it was beyond understanding what happened to her later. He said he was sure she became victim of the PML-N conspiracy and was being used by the Sharif family.
“I have also learnt that money has been used in this conspiracy. This campaign is run by Sharifs and the media godfather Mir Shakilur Rehman.”
Character assassination is an old tactics of Sharifs, he said, adding that they used to call Seeta White and they also levelled serious allegations on Jemima.
He went on to say that he “takes action against party members who do not respect women”.
Maria Toorpakai
In another tweet the PTI chief urged his party workers to refrain from crticising Gulalai’s sister Maria Toorpakai Wazir.
“My request to all PTI supporters is to immediately refrain from targeting Ayesha Gulalai’s sister,” Imran has tweeted.
Moments after her allegations, the PTI supporters took to Twitter and condemned Gulalai as well as her sister Maria, who is a professional Pakistani squash player, for wearing what they called ‘indecent and immoral’ dress during her tournaments.
However, the PTI chief only asked his workers to refrain from targeting Maria, and did not stop them from crticising Gulalai.
Fazal Elahi
Earlier, a PTI MPA from K-P claimed that Gulalai leveled allegations of harassment with the backing of PML-N leader Amir Muqam and Imran’s ex-wife Reham Khan.
Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Fazal Elahi, the parliamentary secretary for environment, said Muqam, Reham and Gulalai joined hands and “made up” allegations against the PTI chief.
Elahi, who was elected from PK-6 Peshawar on a PTI ticket, said Gulalai had also been in touch with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari. “I know Gulalai very well and she cannot stay for more than three months in any party,” he said.
Elahi also said that Reham “cannot tolerate Imran’s popularity”. He accused Gulalai and Reham of using “shortcuts to get popular”, adding that they would not succeed.
The MPA went on to claim that Gulalai used PTI’s name to collect millions of rupees in donations from Qatar and Dubai to build a ghost hospital in her constituency.
“There is no hospital in her area, but she did spend a large amount of money on her brother’s wedding when she returned from abroad,” he said.
Elahi demanded that the MNA immediately submit the money she collected in donations to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital.
The K-P MPA also used the opportunity to criticise Wapda officials for prolonged power outages in Peshawar and gave the authority a 10-day ultimatum to end load-shedding or his supporters would lock down all Wapda offices in the district.
Elahi is the same MPA who had, along with his constituents, stormed the Taj Abad grid station in May and forcibly restored supply to various feeders, prompting Pesco to register an FIR.
