Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed has said that he was being targeted through a smear campaign by those political leaders who are part of the status quo and never wanted young leaders like him to become part of parliament.
“Those who consider parliament as their property and politics their business are running a malicious campaign against me,” Saeed said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday.
He was apparently referring to the remarks passed by media personality Mohsin Baig, who was detained by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the complaint of Saeed.
During a discussion on a private TV channel programme in which Baig was a panellist, the panel had made unethical and disparaging remarks against the minister for receiving the top performance award by Prime Minister Imran Khan recently.
The programme received heavy criticism from the government quarters. The channel was also served a show-cause notice by the media regulator.
Saeed said whenever any political leader dared to unmask the corrupt practices of corrupt political leaders, he was targeted with such campaigns.
“Whenever I raise voice against injustice and corruption [political leaders] like Qadir Patel, Hafiz Hamdullah, Aga Rafiullah, Rana Sanaullah and others use foul language against me,” he added. The media cells of PPP and PML-N were also involved in running the smear campaign against me on social media, he added.
The minister said he was ready to hold a debate on the performance of his ministry and the criteria on which his ministry retained top position among ‘top ten best performing ministries’.
Saeed said he belonged to a middle-class family and rose to the top in politics through his political struggle.
The minister said he was the founder of PTI’s student wing, Insaf Student Federation (ISF) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and added that due to his efforts ISF became the strongest student body in the province.
“I was amongst them who took to the street against drone strikes and other matters,” he added.
