SIALKOT    -   Referring to the falling wickets of Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf after May 9 mayhem, Minister for Defence, Kha­waja Muhammad Asif on Sunday that those who could not bear the bur­den of party Chairman Imran Khan's ‘mistakes’ were bidding adieu to the former ruling party.

Over 80 lawmakers and leaders of the party have bid farewell to the party after the May 9 riots.

Asif accused Khan of shattering the country’s economy, adding that he was now trying to weaken the coun­try defensively.

During Khan’s tenure, raids were conducted at the houses of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) lead­ers but they did not become absconders.

Taking a jab at Imran Khan, Asif asked him to give more names of the negoti­ation team so that if some of them quit the party, then there should be a re­placement for the members. He said 25 years ago on May 28th, Pakistan became a nuclear power and our leader, former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Shar­if, made the country’s defence invincible by detonating nuclear weapons.

“Our defence has become very strong due to achieving nuclear deterrence”, he expressed while addressing the ninth convocation of a private college in Sialkot as the chief guest. Khawaja Asif said that it was a matter of pride that the daugh­ters of nation were going ahead to start their working life after completing their educational degrees. “I heartily congrat­ulate all these daughters and their par­ents for their success. I do and pray that May Allah bless them with many success­es in the future,” the Minister said.

He said that it should not be the goal to get only BA, MA degree, adding, “but I ad­vise all students to get a purposeful educa­tion because only getting a purposeful ed­ucation can help us to move forward. We can deal with the challenges we are fac­ing.” The minister said that in the present era, getting purposeful education includ­ing IT was very important because devel­opment was not possible without it. “Po­litical parties or political leaders are not our red line, but the soil of this country and our martyrs should be our red line, who have defended this dear country and our safety and did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for it,” he added. He said that the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started to make the country a nu­clear power, but it was completed by the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the Pakistan Army has also played a very important role in the nuclear assets of the country. “Our Pakistan Army today is also protect­ing its borders as well as its nuclear as­sets for which we pay tribute to them.” He said, “We should value our martyrs and Ghazis because nations that forget their martyrs and desecrate their monuments cannot flourish.” “The progress we saw in the country from 2013 to 2017, after 2018, was again pushed towards destruc­tion. Which we are trying day and night to manage, but no significant success has been achieved so far. Nevertheless, we are determined that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, we will be able to take the country on the path of construction, development and prosperi­ty very soon,” he maintained.

Exhorting the youth, he said, “Our young generation should show patience and tol­erance, develop patience and respect each other’s opinion.” He said that May 9th events were the worst violent form of dissent in na­tional life, which was hardly condemned, while also targeting the very institutions that protected us. He said, “Our martyrs are our benefactors to whom we salute, thanks to the sacrifices of martyrs we are breathing in free air today, soldiers of Pakistan Army are fighting against terrorism with their lives on the palm of their hand and so we should appreciate their sacrifices.”