Imran Khan to start election campaign on Saturday

Lahore: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday congratulated the nation over remarkable judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying that it was the first step towards the rule of law.

“Had this happened before Pakistan would have been a prosperous country,” said Imran Khan while addressing the nation via video link.

Imran Khan said that prosperity was linked with the rule of law, quoting Nelson Mandela that he emphasized over rule of law and justice to eradicate poverty.

Khan said that there had been a mafia in the country who were challenging the writ of the law for their vested interest.

“They come into power through the corrupt means. They spend money. They got waived off Rs11b and tried their best to remain in power.

“PTI has won 30 out of 37 by-polls so far,” said Imran Khan, adding that it was the reason that they ran away from the elections.

It was quite clear that elections were to be held within 90 days and they tried their best delay the elections, said Khan, expressing gratitude for the Supreme Court for remarkable judgment for elections.

“The law minister’s statement is shameful. It is another attempt to divide the judiciary despite that all the five judges were united on holding elections in 90 days,” said Khan.

He lashed out at Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and said that the PMLN did not like ever the honest judges and the surprising fact was that despite the judgment of the Supreme Court, there was an impression that perhaps there would be no elections within 90 days.

Calling PML-N and PPP as mafias, he regretted that they wanted to delay the elections.

“We thank the judiciary and standing there for it,” he added.

He pointed out that it is the social media time and the young generation is now quite well-informed and they know the facts as compared to the past.

“Today Pakistan has changed. The whole nation understands everything. Mobile phones and social media have played important role because the lie is exposed within no time. The mafias have now been exposed,” said the PTI chief.

So, he said, after SC decision, jail bharo tehreek was cancelled.

“We are going to start our election campaign.  I will come up with a roadmap on this Saturday,” he announced, pointing out that during the last ten months, the fundamental rights of the citizens were violated and what the persecution was done to crush the PTI and its workers as they [the coalition government] went to maximum extent.

“I can’t forget the injustice inflicted upon our PTI leaders and upon the journalists,” said Khan and named the different journalists.

He said they made news cases and yesterday they registered new other cases despite that people

“I have been booked in 74 cases and all my senior leaders have also been booked. In which period, ATA law was misused?. How I was booked in ATA case despite that I was at home and even then I was booked,” he added.

Khan said that the PTI also lashed out at the interim setups, saying that their opponents were brought there to damage their party.

Talking about Thoshakhana case, Khan said that the gifts could be retained against the certain payments.

“Nawaz Sharif took four vehicles and similarly Zardari took four vehicles from Thoshakhana through the illegal way as they stole the same vehicles,” said Khan, adding that he did not steel the gifts rather bought.

“Rs24b cases were against Shehbaz Sharif but they got it ended. Maryam Nawaz was involved in Rs5b and Rs250m besides many other cases,” he claimed.

“Zardari has been facing the cases of  Rs37b but they all waived them off,” said Khan, raising a question to check the money trail of these people.

He stated that he had a tape about the people if anything happened to his life. He said these people [the coalition partners] were much worried now because they thought that it would be quite tough if Khan came into power. 

Imran also expressed concerns over sky-rocketing inflation and failure of the incumbent coalition government and its policies, claiming that the poverty was not that much high during thier government.