ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has called for a countrywide protest campaign against what he called the government’s “mindless privatisation plan and crippling tax measures”.

Addressing a press conference at his Bani Gala residence on Tuesday, the PTI chief said the protest would start on Saturday, Feb 6, and “we will keep you updated when it commences. It could get to D-Chowk as well”.

He described the government action against protesting employees of Pakistan International Airlines and the killing of two of them in Karachi as a dictatorial step which the Sharifs, he said, never hesitated to take against their opponents.

Because of having been nurtured by a dictator, he said, Nawaz Sharif did not know that protest is a democratic right of the people. “I myself will take part in the protest because this democratic dictatorship is crushing the common man.”

Mr Khan didn’t specify the city from where he will be launching the protest, but a PTI office-bearer said he might go to Karachi.

The PTI chief said: “Today what has been done in Karachi is a replica of Lahore’s Model Town where protesters were gunned down in broad daylight. The PML-N has a tradition of using force.”

He accused the government of deliberately making the national airline a loss-making entity in order to prepare the ground for its privatisation. “The national entities should be privatised only to benefit people.”

Once people all over the world praised PIA and even used its expertise to set up airlines like Emirates and Singapore Airline, he said.

Mr Khan said oil prices had sharply declined in the international market, but the PML-N government was filling its own coffers instead of passing on its benefit to the common man.

“They are levying taxes on the common man without approval of parliament to pay off foreign loans.”

The PTI has claimed that the present government had increased tax on diesel to 98 per cent from 22pc during the PPP rule.

Mr Khan said the government had also imposed 68pc tax on gas.

He alleged the ruling party was interested only in kickbacks and it was possible only through big projects. “The government has taken Rs200 billion loan to build the Orange Train in an area where 80pc people have no access to clean drinking water.”

He said there were reports that the Orange Train route was being changed to save the house of a minister. The diversion had dearly affected people living in the adjoining Katchi Abadis, he added.

“The priority for a government should be improvement in the social sector with special focus on health and education.”

The PTI chairman said a bridge was built in Peshawar at a cost of Rs8.3 million per kilometre, but a bridge in Lahore cost Rs21.1m per km and interestingly a new company had been awarded the contract for constructing it.

PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Naeemul Haq were present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2016