LAHORE: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has become the face of the establishment and judiciary’s collective mistakes. He said that Imran is not intelligent but he is a fool.

The Imran Khan model was forcedly manufactured in the laboratory in 2018, the federal minister said while speaking at an event in Lahore. Since his ouster in April, the deposed prime minister has been targeting the institutions for allegedly helping the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) come into power but the incumbent government had repeatedly denied the notion.

Slamming the PTI chief, Khawaja Asif said that he invested the charity money he received from a cricket club into properties. “This person [Imran] has lived on others’ money”, he alleged.

He has been siphoning money from the people for a long time. He and his followers are pickpockets, the senior minister said, noting that it was time that the political elite ensure that they are doing their job in the right manner. The defence minister also advised his party’s leadership to accept the resignations of PTI lawmakers and send them on a wild goose chase.

“Right now, at least 130-135 lawmakers have quit. But, all the PTI lawmakers are residing in Rs 500 million residences and taking all the facilities from the government. They’re thieves,” he said. He also suggested to the PTI leadership that if they want their members of Parliament to resign, they should begin first begin with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.