Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan stood completely discredited in the wake of another leaked audio, in which the former prime minister purportedly tells party lawmakers to engage in horse trading.

The clip dates back to the time when Imran was in power. In it, a voice believed to be of Imran is giving instructions to party members to ‘buy MNAs’ to get the requisite number of votes ahead of the vote of no confidence in which he was later ousted.

Addressing the media in Islamabad, the interior minister said that Imran was misleading the youth with his lies and deception.

He also laid into Imran Khan over his constant accusations against the ‘cabal of crooks’ - his preferred moniker for the troika of PML-N chief and incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari and JUI-F and PDM head Maulana Fazlur Rehman - of being involved in horse trading.

“Imran Khan equated horse trading with idolatory,” he said while repeating the contents of the audio. In it, a male voice believed to be of Imran Khan’s can be heard saying that he was making moves to “buy” more lawmakers, while instructing that it did not matter if the tactics used were right or wrong. “Imran Khan can do anything for power.”

Imran would tell people that they shouldn’t marry their children in families of people without conscience. “What will he tell them now?”

Islamabad protest

Speaking in reference of Imran’s much-delayed march and protest for ‘real freedom’ in Islamabad, he said that it was an attempt by Imran to take over Parliament using ‘mob culture’.

“If we allow one mob to enter, then there will be another,” he said.

He said that Imran was welcome to announce the date but he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

“They will not be able to come to Islamabad nor will they be able to go back,” he said. “We will thwart the plan of long march at any cost.”

Towards the end of his press conference, Rana Sanaullah confirmed that PTI Senator Saifullah Niazi had been detained for questioning. “He wasn’t questioned in connection with the prohibited funding case,” he told reporters in Islamabad.