VEHARI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has warned that his party will hit the streets again if the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) fails to come up with a response regarding his 40 questions.

“If our questions remain unanswered about why this commission (ECP) is still in place, we will take to streets again,” Khan said speaking at a Kissan (farmers’) Convention held by his party at football ground at Vehari on Saturday.

He said that PTI was strongly taking up the case of the ECP’s “incompetence” as was declared by the Judicial Commission in its verdict on the party’s 2013 poll rigging allegations.

He called upon the farming community to vote for those who could make policies to make the farmers’ lives better and increase their earnings.

“We are here to educate you that do not waste your vote. Stop giving votes on basis of lineage or family. Today we are announcing that we will be uniting farmers across Pakistan. We will stand with them. If we want economic growth in the country, we will have to help our farmers first.”

Khan said there was so much potential in Pakistan and “if we lift our poor and farmers, we can turn the country around. We can use floodwater in water reservoirs; we as a nation have to decide how to use water better. Global warming is rapidly taking place; we have to decide as a nation how to use water from melting glaciers,” he said.

The PTI chief said both India and China had invested heavily on their farmers to combat poverty and improve economy.

He announced if his party came into power it would set up a Rs5 billion cotton research institute. The institute, he explained, would be run by the representatives of farmers community.

He said the oil prices had fallen globally, asking whether the diesel prices in the country also came down at the same ration for farmers? Did electricity price fall? he asked from the audience, getting response in the form of a loud “no” from them.

“Our farmers are not just drowning in floodwater, they are drowning in debt as well,” he said.

Other PTI leaders, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen, Chaudhry Sarwer also spoke on this occasion and criticised what they called the government’s anti-farmers policies.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play