SUKKUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairperson Imran Khan vowed to unle­ash a “tsunami” of change in Sindh and drive out the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which, he claimed, had not been able to change anything for the better here in the last 20 years.

Speaking at a public gathering in Kandhkot on Wednesday evening, the PTI chief said it was a shame that 20.5 million children were still out of school because their parents could not afford to educate them. He said that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had wanted 20 per cent of the budget to be allocated to education because he knew that uneducated children could fall prey to criminal activity or drug addiction. As many as 45 per cent of children in Pakistan did not have access to proper nutrition, he said, which was why so many of them developed various physical and mental deformities.

Pointing at the high rate of unemployment, the PTI chief said even the educated youth of Pakistan had been left vulnerable to exploitation. “Many have committed suicide, while others have turned to drugs or crime.”

The PTI chief vowed to fulfil all promises he had made to the people of the province if his party came into power. He also announced that he would address public gatherings in several cities in the province after Eidul Fitr. Upon arriving at the airport in Sukkur, Mr Khan told reporters that the Sindh government had tried to stop people from attending the PTI’s public gathering in Kandhkot.

He said he had visited Kandhkot to “awaken” the people of Sindh, but was surprised to find out that they were already “awake”. He said the conditions in Sindh had not been changed even though the PPP had been in power here for the last eight years. “The majority of people continue to face problems of unemployment, failing health standards, and lack of access to drinking water and basic facilities.”

Even the Pakistan Mus­lim League-Nawaz had lost all respect in the eyes of the na­tion, he claimed, because Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was being investigated as a criminal. Even the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accorded him no respect at the recent summit, he said.

Commenting on charges of money laundering against the prime minister, Mr Khan said the people of Pakistan were burdened with taxes because the rulers had taken the country’s dollars abroad, creating an artificial shortage, which was met through loans taken from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said it was unfair that the people of Pakistan had to pay for 15 years of theft by the country’s rulers. He announced that if the PTI came into power, it would never bow before anyone or beg for loans from the IMF.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017