Rulers are afraid of people, Imran: Asad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Secretary-General Asad Umar said on Thursday that the rulers were afraid of the people and Imran Khan so they avoided elections.

Asad Umar told a news conference that the government is running away from the election. He explained that first, the opponents tried to technically knock out Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case legally, but nothing came out and all their tactics failed, so the Lahore High Court took a good decision by summoning all the records of Toshakhana.

They tried to physically target him, plan and try to kill him, but when that plan failed, they started playing his fake audio, and Imran Khan’s popularity increased from 30pc to 60pc as a result of their lies being exposed.

He said that ill-intentioned measures are being taken to stop elections in Punjab and Islamabad; this system cannot run, the economy is destroyed, there is the highest inflation rate in the history of the country, unemployment is increasing, farmers are worried, the business community is concerned, and this regime is unable to handle matters.

Referring to the current political situation in Punjab, he stated that at first, they (rulers) claimed that Imran Khan had only announced that he would not dissolve the assemblies, then they claimed that Pervaiz Elahi would not follow the decision, and then it dawned on them that this chief minister does not have a majority, and the governor said ridiculous and strange things for the vote of confidence.

He conceded that the law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is bad and then asked whether it is the job of the provincial government to stop the infiltration of terrorists from across the border, whether its resources are with the local government, whether terrorism is a regional matter, and whether, given the way the country has been harmed by the regime change operation in the last eight months, such damage cannot be done under any plan: The only solution is a new and transparent election.

Asad Umar maintained that there is nothing wrong if the army takes steps to help and cooperate with the country’s government for the betterment of the country, and we have no objection to it. He said: “Former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said that he became apolitical in February, but I have said before that as long as he was going, we didn’t see neutrality. Now that the new leadership of the army has come, let us see whether neutrality is visible or not. Within these months, we did not see neutrality.”

Asad Umar said that there is a consensus among political parties and institutions that Imran Khan’s way has to be blocked. About the local government polls in the Islamabad Capital Territory, he alleged that the rulers wanted to run away from the elections, so they increased the number of union councils in Islamabad through an amendment in June so that the constituencies are divided and the elections are delayed, and now, a week before elections, they again increased union councils so that the poll process could be postponed further.

“It is also a test of our judiciary; it is the job of the legislature to make laws, but no legislation that is based on malice can be allowed,” he argued. He pointed out that in 2018; many political parties had objections, including the PTI.