Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in Karachi on Sunday told reporters that the person who allegedly bribed him with Rs10 billion to withdraw from the Panamagate case lives in Lahore.
The PTI chief ─ who is in Karachi to rally against the shortage of water and power for city residents with his ‘Haqooq-i-Karachi' march ─ took the occasion to touch upon the incendiary allegations of bribery which surfaced following the Panamagate verdict.
Later, speaking at the Jail Chowrangi area of the metropolis, Khan said that the city’s police needs to be reformed, and if the provincial government fails to do so, then PTI would take to the streets in a forceful manner.
“The most important pillar of governing Karachi is an empowered local body system. The mayor of Karachi has also asked for a local body system modeled on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said Khan while adding that situation in the city will not improve unless the local government system is implemented properly.
Criticising the provincial government, Khan said the funds which should be spent on Sindh and its provincial capital, are being “looted and taken out of the country”.
He also reiterated his earlier call, and urged all Pakistanis to demand the prime minister’s resignation.
Khan, while speaking to party members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa earlier, had alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had offered him Rs10bn to back off from the case.
During a series of TV appearances last week, he went further, claiming that the proposal came from a close friend of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif two weeks ago, when the judgement in the Panama Papers case had been reserved but not announced.
Read more: The Rs10 billion question
Speaking to reporters today, the PTI chief maintained: "He said that Rs10bn was just the starting point, he said it would go even higher."
"I won't give his name, he lives in Lahore," he alleged, adding that the ruling PML-N would take action against the individual if he revealed his identity.
"They torture people through the police," he claimed.
"The day that Shahbaz Sharif meets me in court, I will tell the judge to save the man who made the offer to me," he added.
Speaking about Karachi's problems, the PTI chief maintained that water and power shortages remain the city's most pressing issues, and urged citizens to take to the streets to fight for their rights, whatever their party affiliation.
"I am familiar with the Karachi [of the past] that people would travel to for vacations from Dubai," he said, as opposed to the current state of the polluted city. "There is garbage everywhere," he said, adding, "I am going to [stage a] walk for this today."
"Whatever your party affiliation, you must come out on the streets because this is the kind of pressure that will move them [the provincial government]."
