Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday said the sentencing of PTI chairman in the Toshakhana case should be seen separately from elections and politics as a thief had been punished for his crimes.

Addressing a press conference, Marriyum said they had thought they won’t be held accountable but everyone would have to give answers [for their actions].

The chairman tried his best to escape justice by making different excuses, she told press conference and added that 190 million pounds [Al-Qadir Trust] and cypher cases were still pending. An attempt was being made to build a narrative that the sentencing and arrest was political in nature, the minister noted.

Marriyum said the government had nothing to do with the government as he was detained after the court convicted him in the Toshakhana case. He would have been detained much earlier if the government had wanted to do so on political grounds, the federal minister remarked.

Unlike the claims made by the PTI, Marriyum went on to say, it had been explained in detail in the verdict that ample opportunity was provided to the PTI chairman for arguing his case. But he opted to lies and providing a bogus list of witnesses to the court while trying to avoid justice for 15 months, she added.

Recalling the Panama Papers case, the federal minister mentioned that the name of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif wasn’t even mentioned but he went for writing a letter to the court for accountability. Nawaz had provided answers to the questions while the PTI chairman decided to attack the state institutions, she observed with an argument that the two matters could not equated.

The PML-N supremo appeared before the courts on 150 occasions but was sentenced on dubious grounds under the Black Law Dictionary, Marriyum said.