ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has appealed to people to fully participate in his party’s Sept 30 march to Raiwind in order to put pressure on state institutions which, according to him, are not working judiciously on the Panama Papers issue.

“The bigger the show, the greater the pressure on the institutions,” he said in a five-minute video message released by the party on the social media.

“I need your help for this movement. Consider it a jihad against corruption which has become cancerous for the country,” the PTI chairman said.

“Pakistan is facing a decisive time,” he said, adding that not only the prime minister, but all the democratic institutions and those responsible for providing justice were on trial.

He said time had come that these institutions should prove to the masses that the law was equal for the powerful and the weak.

Giving reasons for his decision to give a call for the Raiwind march, he said six months had passed since the Panama Papers leaks revealed offshore companies of the ruling Sharif family, but no institution had moved decisively.

He said his party had taken up the issue with every institution, including parliament, the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, but had failed to get justice.

Moreover, he said, the institutions like the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Board of Revenue remained unmoved.

Mr Khan said there was less corruption in developed countries because the state institutions there were strong whereas in the developing states they were weak and corruption was high.

The PTI chief said that he wanted to see the Raiwind march as “the country’s biggest-ever demonstration”.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2016