The federal government has initiated a campaign against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf through a case in which the PTI chairperson and other members of the party were nominated in the Masjid-e-Nabwi incident, said former PM Imran Khan.

Khan said this in response to a question while he was addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday.

“We had announced a Shab-e-Dua nationally and internationally on that day. Everyone knew that we were busy in the mass prayers when the incident happened in Madina. No case could be more foolish than this [the one registered against the PTI workers],” said Khan.

He further said: “I am challenging them [the government] that the slogans will be chanted against them [PM Shehbaz and his delegation] whenever they go in public without guards and abroad.”

The former prime minister said the government had no idea of the wrath of Pakistanis against them. He also condemned the arrest of former interior minister Sheikh Rashid’s nephew from the airport.

NAB inquiry against Farah Shahzadi

When asked about a National Accountability Bureau inquiry against Farhat Shahzadi widely known as Farah Khan, the former premier asked the accountability watchdog to show her case to someone else and confirm whether a case could be filed against her or not.

“Wealth beyond known source of income does not apply to Farah Khan as she was not a public office holder. She was in a real state business for at least 20 years,” said Khan.

Ex-PM Khan demanded that Farah should be granted full time to defend her case and said the real state business boomed in PTI’s tenure and she made wealth through it which was no crime.

He also said that Farah was not married to Ahsan Iqbal while he was a Union Council official from 1997 to 1999.

“An inquiry has initiated against Farah to take revenge from me as my wife Bushra Bibi meets her often. This is Farah’s only fault. The case has been filed to discredit me as no corrupt practices have been found against me. A similar case was filed against Jamaima [Khan’s first wife] related to smuggling of antique tiles.”

However, nothing could be proved against Jamaima in the court, he added.

‘NRO 2’

The former prime minister accused the Sharif brothers of granting themselves “NRO 2” so that “all corruption cases filed against them would be closed forever.”

“The nation has suffered consequences of the first NRO granted to Sharifs and Zardari in Musharraf’s era. The Pakistanis will have to bear the loss due to this second NRO to them too,” he added.