April 14, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 13: Only a true democracy and genuine leadership can pull the country out of the socio-economic crises created by the unwise decisions of undemocratic rulers, says Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Imran Khan.

In a lecture on the role of leadership at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) here on Thursday, Mr Khan said that no one should underestimate the potential and political wisdom of the people of Pakistan. He said he was still optimistic of mass mobilisation if free, fair and impartial elections were held.

“Pakistanis are not like Americans, who would choose people like Bush (as president). If they are given institutions and free elections, they would elect a leader of integrity and vision,” he observed.

He said Pakistan was lost in the maze of socio-economic problems and had now even given up its sovereignty because only a single man in power having no roots in the masses wanted to please the United States by killing his own people in the tribal areas.

“We are repeating in Wana and Balochistan exactly what we did in East Pakistan. We also labelled them as miscreants, killed them in thousands until they bounced back and threw Pakistan Army out of Bengal,” Mr Khan added.

He said the war on terror would become costlier for Pakistan in the coming days, as now all sects and groups in Afghanistan and the country’s tribal belt had turned against army.

“Musharraf accepted all the seven demands of the US on a single phone call. Look at Turkey, which told the US that it will consult parliament before allowing it to use its airspace for attacking Iraq,” he said.

“The leadership in Iran had roots in the masses that was why their president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing pressure not only from the US but from the European Union as well. In Pakistan a military dictator was in power and he knew that he would not go to the masses for votes but needed the support of the world’s sole super power to safeguard his presidency.”

Imran Khan said that almost all the institutions in Pakistan, including the judiciary, had collapsed. A small group of elites, who enjoyed their own education system and had hijacked the country’s resources, were above the law and could buy justice from courts, he added.

The writ of the law was only for the poor and the country’s jails were filled with poor people facing petty charges, while those big fish, who committed grave crimes enjoyed freedom and honour. A majority of the ruling party’s ministers were facing corruption references but the NAB was unable to produce them in courts, he said.

“The NAB was unable to investigate the sugar crisis. No one could stop the stock market from collapse in March last. And, now we see the cement crisis. Is there any accountability in this country at all,” Mr Khan asked.

He said poverty and not terrorism was the core problem of Pakistan. He also termed the government’s recent figures that poverty witnessed 7 per cent decline in the country as baseless. Prices of goods had increased manifold in the last decade, while 80 per cent of the employed people in Pakistan still took salaries below Rs4,000 per month.

“The rulers don’t know the problems of the masses. They don’t know how a poor man supports his family in Rs2,000 or Rs3,000 a month,” Mr Khan observed.

Pakistan, he said, was a country where the poor subsidised the rich because 80 per cent of the taxes were indirect and the elite were exempted from many taxes.

He said the country was unable to even introduce a capitalist system let alone a social welfare state. In US, where there was a capitalist system the one per cent elites paid 35 per cent of the overall taxes, he added.

He asked the government to announce education emergency in Pakistan because the country’s education system was almost non- existent.

He said there was education Apartheid in Pakistan, as a few elite educational institutions produced people, who controlled the affairs of the country leaving zero space for the poor to come into powers and serve the nation.