LAHORE, July 8: Alleging that the PPP, the MQM and the ANP are involved in target killings in Karachi, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan says the bloodletting can be checked only if the state stops protecting the criminals.

Demanding immediate resignation of the rulers, he prescribes midterm polls as the only solution to the problems facing the country.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, he said the main reason behind the murder spree in the port city was that the government itself was protecting the criminals.

This protection, he said, could be in the form of defamed NRO or patronisation of the target killers.

He claimed that criminal elements in the PPP, the MQM and the ANP, and not Taliban, were involved in the Karachi violence.

The PTI chief said if the three parties wanted peace in the port city, they should shunt out these elements from their ranks and hand them over to the law-enforcement agencies instead of providing them cover.

Mr Khan alleged that Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited Karachi after each incident only to strike a deal among these parties.

He said as the government had failed on all fronts, it should step down to make room for midterm polls which, he said, were the only solution to the current issues.

He announced that second “remove the government, save the country” public meeting would be held in Faisalabad on July 24.

Responding to a query about joining the proposed grand alliance of the opposition, he said “the grand alliance is in fact a grand fraud.”

Explaining, he said (PML-N chief) Nawaz Sharif had deceived them twice and they were not ready to be hoodwinked for the third time in the name of grand alliance.

The PTI chairman said those who had been enjoying power (with the support of the PPP) were now out to cheat the masses through the proposed anti-government alliance.

He said the PML-N had been supporting the PPP government in the name of democracy and even today it was overlooking the injustices, including gas loadshedding being done to Punjab, only to take its turn in power.

Mr Khan said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was keeping 20 portfolios and was not ready to tolerate honest officers like DIG Zulfiqar Cheema for they were a hurdle in rigging of by-polls.