Islamabad:

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif lashed out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, alleging that after the retirement of former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, the opposition party is begging “someone else” for relief, Geo News reported.

Taking a jibe at Mr Khan, the senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said, “Hardly anyone has licked as many shoes as the PTI founder.”

Addressing the National Assembly, Khwaja Asif cited the remarks of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) leader Aun Chaudhry. He alleged that Imran Khan was taken to General (retd) Amjad Awan’s house by hiding him in a car trunk.

Mr Asif further claimed that the jailed PTI founder made every kind of desperate request to seek relief.

“After Bajwa sahib, they [PTI] are now trying to hold the feet of someone else. Hardly anyone has ‘licked’ as many shoes as the PTI founder,” Geo News quoted the federal minister as saying.

These remarks come in response to PTI Secretary-General Omar Ayub Khan’s address in the lower house of Parliament wherein he slammed the federal government for presenting a budget against the interests of the nation and the country.

“This budget was made by an economic hitman,” said Mr Ayub, who is also the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly.

Taking a jibe at Mr Ayub, Mr Asif said his speech reminded him of his 20-year-old statements wherein he would praise PML-N leaders Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif in the same way he was hailing PTI founder Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Defence minister said that the PML-N would welcome the PTI if it apologised for the May 9 riots that broke out after the arrest of former premier Imran Khan.

The PML-N leader also slammed the opposition party for writing a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking the global lender to link funding to the audit of alleged rigging in the elections, Geo News reported.

“After being ousted from power, the PTI wanted the country to default,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A file photo of Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif 
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has expressed hope for the betterment of ties with India after the general elections in India. Mr. Asif’s comments came days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Singapore said that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism almost at an “industry level” and the mood in India now is not to overlook terrorists and it “will not skirt this problem anymore”.

“Our relations with India could be improved after elections there,” Mr. Asif said while speaking to reporters outside the Parliament House in Islamabad on April 1 , adding that the bilateral ties between the two countries have their “own background”.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in India will take place between April 19 and June 4, spread across seven phases.

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Islamabad and New Delhi have a long history of strained relations, primarily due to the Kashmir issue as well as the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. In 2019, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties with New Delhi after the Indian government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories. The decision, Islamabad said, undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Pakistan has been insisting that the onus of improving the ties was on India and urging it to undo its “unilateral” steps in Kashmir as a sort of pre-condition to start the talks. India has dismissed the suggestion and made it clear to Pakistan that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral and inalienable parts of the country.

New Delhi has also asserted that the constitutional measures taken by the Indian government to ensure socio-economic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters internal to India. It has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment that is free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.

Pakistan, which borders China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran has witnessed tensions with other neighbours, except for China, following cross-border attacks from Iran and Afghanistan.