PM’s slip of tongue being dramatised: SAPM

By Asim Yasin

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister of Pakistan on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Thursday said that some foreign media outlets and local leaders are blowing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s slip of tongue out of proportion

In a message he said: “Referring to PM’s speech in NA today, it is clarified that PM twice used the word “killed” for OBL. An unwarranted attempt is being made at home/abroad with a clear intent to make his remarks controversial unnecessarily.

“PM’s and Pakistan’s commitment against terrorism is unwavering and our track record in eliminating this menace is better than anyone else in the world.”

Ealier Fedeeral Minister of Science and technology Fawad Chaudhry, while talking in Geo News show ‘Capital Talk’ said that PM calling Osama Bin Laden a martyr was a slip of tongue.

It may be mentioned that, during an interview to FOX News in July 2019, Imran Khan had said that it was the ISI that gave clue of OBL location, which speaks of his mind about the al-Qaeda leader.

Earlier, during the National Assembly session, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Parliamentary leader of the PML-N Khwaja Asif while responding to the speech of Prime Minister Imran Khan challenged the prime minister to have a debate on his policies either in the House or on any television channel. The opposition came hard on the PM for referring to Osama bin Laden as a “martyr (Shaheed)” and said the speech was not meant for the parliament but for someone else.

Khwaja Asif took exception to declaring Osama bin Laden a “martyr” and said Osama was a terrorist but the prime minister declared him a “martyr”. He called Prime Minister Imran Khan a “corona” for the country.

Bilawal while addressing the National Assembly challenged the prime minister to have a debate on his policies either in the House or on any television channel.

“The prime minister’s speech was the speech of a puppet and a selected man, for the selectors. It was not a speech for the people of Pakistan,” he said, adding that Imran Khan had no plan to deal with COVID-19 and only opposed lockdown. He said the lockdown was the time to increase the health capacity of the country, lockdown was the time to equip your hospitals, lockdown was the time to increase ICU beds in hospitals, it was the time to plan to protect the lives and health of people.

He said Sindh is still doing the most tests according to its population and the patients recovery rate is the highest in Sindh. He warned if the situation persists due to the failed policies of the prime minister. “No province in the country would be able to take the burden of the number of patients,” he said.

The PPP chairman said: “If you want to return the amount to the IMF, do not implement lockdown but it is your responsibility to save people from diseases and save their lives.” He said the prime minister is not ready to listen to any doctor or health expert. “It is like the time when there was war in Kargil but we kept saying that there is no war and our soldiers were being martyred,” he said.

Similarly, he said, now the doctors and paramedics are getting infected with the disease and succumbing to the disease but the prime minister refuses to accept the situation. “No risk or any kind of allowance was announced in the budget for our doctors and paramedics who are fighting this pandemic putting their own lives at risk,” he said.

Khwaja Asif said the speech of the prime minister was for someone else. He said the prime minister gave a lecture on the history of Mughal era, which needs to be corrected. He said before the COVID-19 outbreak, there were 5.5 million people unemployed and after the coronavirus, their numbers increased to more than 10 million.