Pakistan’s important decisions are being made in London: Imran

LALAMUSA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan Saturday said that important decisions about Pakistan were being made in London while he had never created controversy over the appointment of the new army chief.

Addressing the participants in the Haqeeqi Azadi March through video link, Imran said the prime minister of the country had been in London for the last five days. “He is deciding who will become the army chief of Pakistan. Consider what is happening to this country. Our new army chief is being decided by a convict and fugitive and his sons and daughter. Sitting next to him are the sons of Ishaq Dar, who have fled the country. Ishaq Dar also did not return to the country until he was assured by his handlers that no one would arrest him,” he claimed.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons, he maintained, say they are not citizens of Pakistan because they cannot answer for their corruption. “Four palaces were revealed in the Panama papers in the name of Maryam Nawaz. Thieves of this country are deciding what will be the future of this country. In any civilised society of the world, it cannot be imagined that important decisions are made outside the country by people who have been stealing the country’s money for thirty years.

Imran said Shehbaz Sharif accused a newspaper of insulting him but he did not know that British courts dispense justice. “He is now in deep trouble. UK courts have summoned him. It will be the biggest challenge for him now that he will have to explain the allegations that he has levelled against the newspaper in the court and he has levelled some serious allegations,” he added.

He said Shehbaz Sharif, who had bought the Quetta Bench, did not know where he was stuck now. “This is the main difference why people from Pakistan go there in search of jobs. Their resources are not more than our resources but there is justice. My job is to educate the nation. A society cannot be prosperous unless there is justice and rule of law. A society where the law does not protect the weak from the strong is a jungle. This is the story of all poor countries. I have seen these countries. That is why I started this movement 26 years ago that Pakistan cannot become the Asian Tiger and Lahore another Paris unless the justice system is improved.”

The chairman of PTI said: “When we give real freedom to the nation, then this nation will automatically lift the country. If you ask overseas Pakistanis why they don’t invest in Pakistan, they will say that because they are afraid that if they buy a plot, it would be encroached upon and they would not be able to get its possession. How can we start a business in a country whose law does not protect people? Pakistanis living in Britain will say that the heads of state who tell us to invest in Pakistan are sending their money out. Why do our politicians send money abroad? They do it because it is stolen money. Stolen money has to be sent out because it will be seen here. Here, if their wealth starts to increase by billions of rupees, then the nation will definitely ask the question, where did this money come from? These people cannot answer it because it is stolen money.”

“If Shehbaz Sharif and his son had to send money outside, they used to send it in the name of people who have never left the country. In 1992, a law was made by them that whoever sends money from abroad will not be asked anything. Most of the assets of these two families (Sharifs and Zardaris) are outside the country.

“It is a tragedy of this country that the two families are given NRO every time and these people again return to the country and again take Pakistan’s money to foreign countries. All this is happening in front of the whole nation that thieves are sitting and deciding who will be the next army chief of Pakistan. What world are we living in?

“I spent 30 years in the UK. No one can imagine that the prime minister of the Great Britain has properties in foreign countries. If his properties are in foreign countries, he cannot sit in office until he answers. No one can even imagine that when the turn of accountability comes, the prime minister will escape and after some time becomes the prime minister again and his cases are pardoned.

“Allegations were made that I had made the next army chief controversial. I never made it controversial. I say that the army chief should be appointed on merit. I don’t want an army chief, judge, IGP or NAB head of my choice. I want the best people on the basis of merit. The rulers want to appoint people of their choice to top posts. The IGP appointed by Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad was going to be punished in the Safe City case. Shehbaz Sharif made him IGP because the corrupt man will now serve Shehbaz Sharif and do all his illegal work. He will do every unlawful task given by him.

“This is how countries are destroyed. These people do not appoint people to high positions on merit, but they appoint them to do the wrongs of those people. The PMLN attacked and chased away an honest Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and it was not because the judiciary was not working properly. People whose history is like this, will they sit in London and decide the next army chief?

“I want to ask their handlers if they are not worried about Pakistan. Do they not understand the situation of the country? Did they not know when they were imposing these thieves on the country that how these people will treat the country?

“I ask this question, who is responsible for all this? Where is Pakistan we left before the no-confidence motion in March? Ask the business class, farmers and laborers of Pakistan today that after 17 years the wealth of the country was increasing. Our growth rate in the third year was 5.7%. If we had not been removed through the conspiracy, today the growth rate of the country would have been 7%. We decreased oil prices because we thought we would get cheap oil from Russia. We did not want to burden the public. During this period, dollar has become expensive by Rs49.”

“Today the wealth of Pakistan is not increasing. How will we repay our debts when our wealth will not increase? Today the country is drowning in debt. Who is responsible for imposing these thieves on us? History remembers the responsible.

“The whole nation is shocked by what happened to Azam Swati that they would go to such an extent to blackmail someone. The time is decisive. This movement is not Imran Khan’s but the people’s movement. A nation that is not truly free has no status. The green passport cannot be honored until we get our rights.

“They think by silencing people and what was done with Arshad Sharif the nation is in a shock and asking whether this is the way to run the country. Unless the judiciary of this country brings the powerful to justice, there can be no improvement,” he added.

PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, MNA Syed Faizul Hassan Shah, Hammad Azhar and Dr. Yasmin Rashid also addressed the gathering and criticised the present rulers.