Lashing out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government over the deaths of over 20 people in Murree in freezing temperatures late Friday night (January 7), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday held the government responsible for the tragedy, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Speaking to the media at Narowal, he said the incident occurred due to the ‘negligence’ on the part of the government. “One is at a loss to understand as to how over 0.1 million cars managed to enter Murree, and why the authorities did not stop them while they were on their way to the hill station,” he wondered.

The PML-N secretary general regretted that while the tourists stranded on a road to Murree kept crying for help, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was attending meetings in Lahore. 

He accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of conferring favours upon those who had donated funds to the PTI. “While on one hand, he is benevolent towards his party’s donors, on the other he has made the country bankrupt. He has committed corruption by disguising himself as an honest person, and thus has deceived people in the name of accountability,” he alleged.  

He said that the time had come to save Pakistan. “This man has made the lives of people miserable. Now the only way left for us to save the masses from complete destruction is to send this government home,” he opined. 

He alleged that the government was putting the country’s integrity at stake to borrow money from the IMF.

In the same breath, he called upon the parties allied to the PTI government at Center not to, what he called, add to the miseries of people by siding with the government. 

He rubbished the PTI government’s claim that the present economic crisis in the country was due to the previous government’s policies. 

The PML-N leader was of the view that the federal ministers talking about extension in the tenure of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke of government’s ‘incompetence’. 

Ahsan said that the PML-N welcomed the ‘long march’ announced by the Pakistan Peoples Party.