My disqualification will be nation’s loss, says Imran

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman (PTI) Imran Khan Sunday said his disqualification would be the nation’s loss, as his party was the only party in the country that enjoyed popular support across Pakistan.

Addressing a public gathering at Liaquat Bagh here, he said the PTI was the largest party in the country; weakening the country’s largest party would be weakening the country. “If you put Pakistan’s largest party against the wall, then the situation like Sri Lanka will happen definitely. The nation is not ready to accept thieves. The debt burden is increasing,” he warned.

The PTI chief said: “An attempt is being made to disqualify me; there is pressure of the boot. I ask the neutrals whether you are neutral or not?” He said only the political parties could unite the nation, and not any other institution. He said his arrest would not make any difference, as the nation had already set its journey for ‘real independence’. He vowed that he would never surrender in the struggle for real independence.

Imran came down hard on Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) for banning his live coverage on channels and said his life and death was for Pakistan. “Only the nation can defeat the corrupt people. I will stay on roads until getting the real independence.”

He congratulated the PTI organisers for holding a successful public gathering in a very limited time. Khan said that the youth is the future of Pakistan and they would decide the fate of the country. He criticised the discriminatory enforcement of law separately for the rich and poor people in the country.

The PTI chief alleged that he was ousted from power through a foreign conspiracy when the country was witnessing significant economic growth. “Regime change was staged in Pakistan as Imran Khan has rejected the US slavery. Countries design their foreign policies for the betterment of their nations. I did not want my nation to join the US-led war.”

While criticising the war on terror, Khan said that thousands of Pakistanis were martyred in the US-led war and he wanted to permanently come out of the American-led war. “If India can purchase cheaper oil from Russia despite being an ally of the US, then why not us? If India can provide petrol on Rs25 lower rate, then why we cannot take the same step?”

Regarding the May-25 rally, Khan said the ruling coalition used illegal tactics to target the PTI workers and he concluded the sit-in to avoid a bloodshed. He said when the police tortured the PTI people on May-25, he was told by insiders in the police that there was an order from the top, from the neutrals that they [PTI activists] should be thrown out.

“The Chief Election Commission kept giving every decision against us; the news came from inside that there was an order from the power-that-be,” he said. The PTI chairman vowed to remain present among people until real freedom was achieved. He claimed that today a negative campaign was going on in the country, whose only purpose was not to let the nation get real freedom.

Condemning Shahbaz Gill’s arrest, Imran Khan said, “Gill was abducted and tortured. I did not know the whereabouts of Gill for two to three days until the lawyers told me about the condition of Shahbaz Gill.”

“Shahbaz Gill is a professor and an educator in the United States. He came here to serve his country and participate in the struggle for building a new Pakistan. Gill’s driver and his driver’s wife were also abducted. They made photos of Shahbaz Gill after subjecting him to torture.”

He added that he would never accept the rule of thieves. Individuals were receiving threats for giving statements independently on media. He reiterated the call for fresh elections to end political and economic instability in Pakistan.

“Our government was toppled when Pakistan was developing economically, all the thieves made noise that Imran Khan caused inflation, but when electricity bills reached them in the imported government’s rule, people faced a lot of problems.

“Petrol reached Rs300/litre, in our time petrol was Rs150, today it is 234; eggs were Rs150 per dozen in our time, today they are Rs215, lentils Rs157 in our era, now it is Rs300 per kg; onion was Rs44 in our times, today it is Rs86,” he listed rates of daily-use items.

The PTI chairman claimed that Nawaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif had said more bitter things against the army than Shahbaz Gill, but no one caught them because they were powerful. He said now people should themselves decide who had said more bitter things against the army.