Former Punjab minister slams Imran Khan for keeping PTI at stake to save his position

Former Punjab minister Abdul Aleem Khan on Monday launched a verbal attack against caretaker Prime Minister Imran Khan as he accused the latter of keeping at stake the entire Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to save his position, reported local media.

Expressing his displeasure at being maltreated during the PTI regime in the province, Imran Khan's once-close confidant, Aleem Khan, accused him of patronising corruption and said that the appointed Usman Buzdar as a "puppet chief minister" to expel challenge against him and his cronies minting money through corruption, reported the Dawn newspaper.

Aleem further said that he kept sending Imran Khan messages concerning Buzdar's corruption and the caretaker premier's replies, that are safe with him, would be revealed to the world soon.

"Now, I will not sit silent, and speak the truth about what has been going on in the past three-and-a-half years of the government," the media outlet quoted him as saying.

Aleem said that he had also informed Imran Khan regarding the posting of commissioners, deputy commissioners and superintendents of police by bribing officials in the chief minister's secretariat, reported the media outlet.

Notably, massive scale transfers and postings in the bureaucracy, from senior positions to the assistant commissioner level, were made during the PTI's tenure in Punjab.

Further slamming the caretaker prime minister for sidelining him despite both of them struggling together to build the party and helping Imran Khan clinch the prime minister's office, Aleem said, "I regret that I spent 10 years for a person, who was not loyal to the nation".

"Instead of appreciating me for the struggle, I was targeted in Punjab and now I'm being declared a traitor for meeting the US ambassador," the media outlet quoted him as saying.

Notably, a day earlier, former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar had also accused Imran Khan of pressurising him to take 'unconstitutional and unlawful' steps for ensuring the victory of the ruling party's nominee Parvez Elahi in the chief minister's election.

( With inputs from ANI )