ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday his party would decide whether to go for a civil disobedience campaign or use other means to oust the government during its Central Executive Committee meeting on Saturday, adding that the government had lost the confidence of the people.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr Khan, flanked by information secretary of his party Shafqat Mehmood, said there was nothing wrong in calling early elections because the government's mismanagement and corruption had undermined every institution and led to a breakdown of law and order.He said the government's energy policies had rendered four million people jobless in Punjab alone because of shutdown of businesses and industrial units. He said his decision of boycotting the 2008 elections was correct because those polls were meant to bring about a government which was subservient to the US dictates and better served American interests at the expense of the people of Pakistan.
“There is nothing wrong with the demand of early polls to keep the democratic order on track as there are several examples of repeated elections in different countries in the recent past, including Turkey,” he said.
The PTI chairman reiterated his party's stance that it would not contest the elections unless the Election Commission implemented the judgment of the Supreme Court about names of fake voters in electoral rolls.
Referring to power and gas riots across the country, Mr Khan said only 185,000 consumers were paying their electricity bills though there were 28,00,000 air conditioners and there were 400,000 illegal connections owned by influential people who used free electricity and the poor had to pay their bills also.
Referring to corruption in the fertilizer sector, the PTI chairman said that media would soon be provided with details of the corruption in this sector, which had badly hit farmers throughout the country. About deteriorating law and order situation, he said that cases of car snatching had touched new heights last year while kidnapping for ransom had now become a massive industry, forcing several industrialists to close their businesses in the country move to other countries.
He accused the government of mismanagement in state affairs and reneging on agreements, leading to massive gas and power loadsheddng which had closed hundreds of industries and businesses, rendering millions of people jobless and pushing them and their families to starvation.
He attributed all these problems to US-brokered PPP-Musharraf deal known as NRO and because of this deal an inefficient, incompetent and corrupt government was put in place only to continue to serve US interests.
He accused the government of destroying all key institutions, including PIA, PSM and Pakistan Railways.
The PTI chief supported the demand of new provinces of Hazara, south Punjab and Bahawalpur, but only on administrative grounds and not for political point scoring or gaining party votes, adding that countries like Japan and others had done so to streamline their administrative work and to facilitate their masses.
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