ISLAMABAD -Former National Assembly speaker and major PTI leader Asad Qaiser responded on Sunday to federal ministers Khawaja Asif and Attaullah Tarar, who accused his party of launching a smear campaign against Pakistan’s military and law enforcement martyrs.
“The PTI has always recognised and honoured the sacrifices made by soldiers defending the country’s borders,” Qaiser told reporters.
“[Defence Minister] Khawaja Asif and [Information Minister] Ataullah Tarar’s misleading propaganda about the martyrs is regrettable,” said the deputy prime minister.
Qaiser emphasized in a post on social media platform X that “those using the soldiers’ martyrdom for their political gains are not the well-wishers of the nation.”
“The nation is proud of each and every soldier protecting the country,” the PTI leader declared.
Barrister Saif, the PTI leader, also slammed the PML-N, accusing them of exploiting the martyrs for political benefit.
He maintained the PTI’s patriotic stance and denied any involvement in disparaging security force martyrs.
Earlier on Sunday, Khawaja Asif criticized the PTI, claiming that some members of the party ridiculed the martyrs by comparing them to returning policemen.
He recommended that “those who make statements against the martyrs must be linked to terrorists,” and that no political party, regardless of their disagreement with the system, should engage in such behavior.
On Saturday evening, Information Minister Ata Tarar threatened action against the PTI’s social media team, accusing them of coordinating a disparaging campaign against martyrs, notably those killed in North Waziristan.
Tarar decried the offensive social media campaign, pointing out that many of the profiles were run from outside Pakistan, yet had followers in the nation.
On Saturday, at least seven army soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel and a captain, were martyred in a brutal terrorist attack in the Mir Ali district of North Waziristan.
