LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said the NA-120 by-election results will leave an ever-lasting impression on the course of Pakistan’s future, making it clear whether people want a strong judiciary and accountability of the corrupt or let the rulers loot the nation.

Addressing a public gathering on Jail Road, on the outskirts of the NA-120 constituency, here on Friday, Mr Khan said the voters should throng the polling stations on Sept 17 and laud the Supreme Court’s five judges with their votes for their landmark judgement that disqualified the “biggest dacoit” and removed him from the office of prime minister. “People should vote and acknowledge Supreme Court’s strength that led it to take a just decision against the most powerful in the country.”

Besides wooing the PTI voters, Mr Khan for the first time also addressed the PML-N voters and asked them to rethink their decision whether they were ready to allow the corrupt and dacoits to continue their rule and loot the nation’s wealth to stash their assets abroad. “If you decide to vote allowing the biggest dacoit in the country to move freely, you must also file a petition that all small-time thieves and dacoits should also be freed.”

Lashing out at Nawaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar’s sons for piling up huge wealth, Mr Khan also asked the PML-N voters to ask the disqualified prime minister’s daughter Maryam how they could also make money like her brothers. “Instead, Maryam Nawaz should herself give lectures in the constituency how the people of the constituency could earn billions,” he said sarcastically.

Besides wooing PTI voters, Mr Khan asks PML-N voters to rethink their decision

Asserting that PTI candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid is not contesting an election against a candidate but a state as a whole, Mr Khan said courts had started performing without taking any political pressure and it was time that people should come out for their support. “Courts and state institutions will gain strength if the people of the constituency will overwhelmingly vote for the rule of law,” he asserted.

Since the creation of Pakistan, he said, only “Might is Right” rule prevailed and the poor and underprivileged rarely got justice from courts. “Disqualification of Nawaz Sharif is an incredible stroke of luck and people must avail the golden chance and ensure that no corrupt, looter and plunderer should reach assemblies, President House and Prime Minister House,” he said.

Referring to Nawaz Sharif’s cries of “Mujhe Kyun Nikala” during his homecoming journey on GT Road, Mr Khan said the disqualified prime minister was dumbfounded as how the courts could disqualify a powerful person.

Addressing PML-N sympathisers, he said the Supreme Court had given Nawaz Sharif over a year to explain how he and his sons made huge wealth abroad. “All the answers by the Sharif family were false and fabricated,” he added.

He said the collective theft of all thieves and dacoits languishing in Pakistani jails did not match the price of one London palace owned by the Sharif family.

The PTI chairman asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to verify 29,000 dubious votes in the constituency, otherwise it would be taken as if it was hand in glove with the ruling PML-N. “Non-removal of dubious votes from the voters’ list will open avenues of rigging.”

Mr Khan also lashed out at the Lahore police for allowing “PML-N goons” to drag, abuse and kick a woman on city roads.

PTI candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2017