ABBOTTABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will witness a real change in their lives in the next three months.

He made these remarks while addressing a public gathering at Pattan Kalan on Saturday in connection with the by-elections for PK-45 Abbottabad, which are scheduled to be held on June 5. The provincial assembly seat was vacated by Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan after assuming charge as governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Six candidates are in the run for the PK-45 seat. However, tough contest is expected between Sardar Mehtab’s cousin Mohammad Farid contesting the elections on PML-N ticket and Ali Asghar Khan, divisional president and central vice-president of PTI.

Imran Khan said that after the local government elections in the province the development work would be geared up and it would be the start of fulfilling the PTI’s promise to empower people at local level. He said that PTI wanted to devolve power to masses to free them from the clutches of the elite class, who were interested only in increasing their bank balances.

The PTI chief said that currently more and more people were going below the poverty line while the ruling class, which had shifted their wealth to foreign countries, was getting richer and richer. He asked the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders to bring their own wealth back to Pakistan instead of asking other people to invest in the country. “The rulers should lead by example,” he said.

Regarding the transparency of by-elections, Mr Khan made it clear that they would hold free and fair elections and that win or loss was part of the process.

The PTI chief said that two parties were playing the game of musical chairs in the country from the last 30 years, but now the people had realised that the country should get rid of all those who had plundered the national exchequer. He said that the loot and plunder of national wealth was still continuing and poor people’s funds were being spent by the rulers lavishly on their security and other things like the recent purchase of two vehicles at a cost of Rs220 million.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014