SWABI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan pledged on Sunday to mobilise the masses against corrupt practices of rulers who had always focused on accumulating wealth instead of concentrating on the national development.

Addressing a public meeting at Zaida locality in connection with the launching of a mass contact drive against what he called corrupt rulers, Mr Khan said that the PTI had planned to hold similar public meetings in different areas to mobilise the people against the government. The next public meeting in this connection would be held on Jan 7.

“Our fight is against corrupt rulers who have become strong and powerful and none of the institutions now bothers to punish them because of flaws in our justice system. When one knocks at the door of institutions providing justice and gets no response, then he must go to the people to listen to the verdict of the masses on issues of public importance,” he said.

He accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of sending a huge amount of money to his son abroad within five years. “This was public money and it should have been spent on the progress and prosperity of the masses.”

The PTI chief said that the country had a “strong team of corrupt leaders”, led by Nawaz Sharif as its “captain, the JUI-F chief as vice captain and former president Asif Ali Zardari and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as its openers”. Nobody could defeat this team in corruption, he said.

Mr Khan said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said that NAB chief should be appointed by the Supreme Court, but Nawaz Sharif would not allow this to happen because he wanted to “conceal his wealth”.

Referring to the situation in Balochistan, Mr Khan said that Baloch people had been deprived of their rights for a long time, adding that Sui gas was produced in the Sui area of the province, but the people of that area were still without gas.

This attitude of the government, he said, had forced Baloch nationalists to raise their voice against rulers.

Referring to the CPEC project, Mr Khan said that the PTI’s fight was against the federal government and not China.

“The CPEC is a great gift from China and it can change the destiny of the nation,” Mr Khan said, adding that the promise made by the prime minister about the project at a multi-party conference should be adhered to.

Speaking on the occasion, KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that the PTI government in the province had brought about revolutionary changes in health, education and other sectors.

He predicted that the PTI would emerge victorious in the next general election.

Speaking on the occasion, KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar alleged that Mr Sharif had converted the Gadoon Amazai estate into a graveyard and under a conspiracy he had deprived Swabi of Ghazi Barotha and now he was bent upon changing the original plan of the CPEC.

Published in Dawn December 26th, 2016