Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the government was not depriving overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote, adding that the incumbent government brought the electoral reforms for holding free and fair elections in the country.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday, the information minister said that the coalition government had made the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) independent.

Criticizing the former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan, Aurangzeb said that he had accepted his defeat by saying that they were not prepared for their long march.

She claimed that the PTI has given 3.5 million rupees each to MPAs and MNAs to make the long march a success. “Against his [Imran Khan] claims of gathering two million people in his long march he couldn’t mobilize even 35,000 people,” she said.

Speaking about a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Marriyum accused the PTI-led government of giving in to tougher conditions with the IMF.

Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan was the one who signed the agreement with the Fund.

Holding Imran Khan responsible for the current massive hike in the prices of petroleum products, the minister said that Imran Khan had continued to subsidise the prices of petroleum products, which forced the incumbent government to take the decision of partially removing the subsidies.

Earlier in the day, Aurangzeb in a tweet accused Imran Khan of the current increase in inflation. “Imran Khan has sown the seeds of inflation by striking a deal with tougher conditions, breaking the records of corruption,” Marriyum wrote adding that the nation was reaping what the former premier sowed.