Lahore, Dec 12 (PTI) Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has launched a blistering attack at Imran Khan, asserting that the former prime minister "slams his benefactor from dawn to dusk", in reference to former Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Addressing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers' convention in Sialkot in Pakistan's Punjab province on Sunday, Asif said Khan was brought to power under a pre-planned scheme by the “planners”.

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"Imran did not suddenly descend on Pakistan, he was launched after 2011 through planning," the Express Tribune newspaper quoted the minister as saying.

Dubbing Khan's four-and-a-half-year tenure an “experiment”, the defence minister said that Khan's political campaign was launched in 2012-13 under an “agenda”.

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“We tried our best to prevent national destruction, but the planners succeeded in transferring power, when nations follow the slogans of fakes and frauds, destruction happens,” he emphasised.

Referring to Khan's criticism of the institutions, especially the military establishment, the defence minister said he "slams his benefactor from dawn to dusk", according to the News International newspaper.

Asif claimed that Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, abused former Pakistan Army chief Bajwa, despite him being the former premier's benefactor, the Express Tribune report said.

Gen Bajwa, 61, retired on November 29 after serving two consecutive three-year terms as Pakistan's Army chief.

Bajwa was appointed as the army chief in 2016 and his three-year term was extended in 2019 by the then-premier Khan, who has turned out to be a top critic of the Army.

The powerful Army, which has ruled coup-prone Pakistan for more than half of its 75-plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in matters of security and foreign policy.

Asif lamented that the common man was suffering due to the faulty economic decisions taken by Khan during his tenure.

He, however, assured that the federal government was trying for the last eight months to improve Pakistan's beleaguered economy.

Asif also accused Khan of feeding the masses with false narratives.

He called Khan the “biggest thief”, who spent his life in free trade.

“People kiss the Holy Kaaba, but he sold a watch with a picture of the Holy Kaaba for tens of millions,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, a district and sessions court in Islamabad on Monday reserved the verdict on a plea filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan in the Toshakhana case against Khan.

The verdict will be announced on December 15.

On November 22, the trial court took up the Toshakhana reference filed by Election Commission against Khan for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices, which the former premier denies, according to Geo.tv.

Khan,70, is in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profit.

He was later disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under Article 63 (i) (p) for making "false statements and incorrect declaration."

According to the ECP records, the gifts were purchased from the Toshakhana -- the state depository established in 1974 -- for Rs 21.5 million on the basis of their assessed value, while they were valued at around Rs 108 million.

There have been numerous allegations and counter-allegations between Pakistan's government and opposition since the news of the Toshakhana sale surfaced in the media.

According to the Pakistani law, overseas presents need to be deposited in the Toshakhana or treasury for valuation before allowing a recipient to keep it.

Officials in the government are required to report any gifts they receive, but they have a threshold below which they don't have to disclose the full value.

Expensive gifts are sent to Toshakhana, although the recipient may be able to buy them back at a discount of up to 50 per cent.

Khan was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.

The former cricketer-turned-politician, who came to power in 2018, is the only Pakistani Prime Minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)