PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that former president Asif Ali Zardari is a “major disease” and he will soon visit Sindh to expose his “misdeeds”.

Speaking at rally here on Friday in connection with a by-election campaign for PTI candidate Arbab Amir Ayub Jan in the NA-4 constituency, the PTI chief said: “I am going to Sindh to break chains of fear there and will tell the people about corrupt practices of Mr Zardari.”

The by-election in NA-4 will be held on Oct 26.

PTI leader says PML-N lawyers stormed accountability court to disrupt proceedings against Sharif family

KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak also addressed the rally, held near Ring Road. The Election Commission of Pakistan has barred Mr Khan from holding the by-election rally in NA-4 and because of this ban, the PTI held its rally in NA-3.

During the rally, Awami National Party leader Arbab Najeebullah Khalil and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Abdul Sattar Khalil announced thier decision to join the PTI.

Mr Zardari has visited KP, particularly Peshawar, several times recently and has claimed that the PPP will form the next government in the province.

In his Friday’s speech, Imran Khan dismissed Mr Zardari’s claim and asserted that besides retaining the next government in KP, the PTI would form governments in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan after the next general elections.

He said Mr Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur each had filed suits against him and sought Rs1 billion in damages for calling them corrupt.

“Now, this is a sign of doomsday that Mr Zardari is talking against corruption in KP,” he said.

The PTI chairman expressed displeasure over non-bailable arrest warrants issued for him by the ECP in a contempt of court case and said that a country could not make progress when institutions did not work in their own parameters.

He threatened to march on Islamabad if the PML-N and the federal government stopped the judiciary from holding the accountability of Mr Sharif and his family members.

The PTI chief also criticised Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for what he called his weak policies and asked him to work as the country’s chief executive and not like a courtier.

He said alleged that PML-N-affiliated lawyers had stormed the accountability court in Islamabad and disrupted its proceedings in a graft case against Mr Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law.

He said the judge had been forced to leave the court, and warned that such behaviour would not be tolerated in future and he would mobilise the masses against this attitude.

Mr Khan said that if the accountability court declared Nawaz Sharif and his family members guilty of corruption in these cases, the entire wealth of Rs300 billion of the Sharif family would be confiscated and it would be brought back to Pakistan.

He accused Mr Sharif of defaming the army and the judiciary to evade accountability. He said Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari and their cronies were shifting their ill-gotten wealth abroad and the PML-N chief was also involved in money laundering and that was why he had been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The PTI chief claimed that a corrupt mafia was transferring $10bn abroad from the country every year and because of this large scale corruption the country might have to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund and other money lending institutions. He said that successive governments had to levy massive taxes on commodities of daily use to pay back these loans.

He criticised Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achakzai for opposing the merger of Fata with KP and pledged that the PTI would continue its struggle for their merger. He said that Fata’s merger with KP was in the interest of the country and the tribal people who had long been deprived of their basic rights.

He appealed to the masses to give votes to PTI candidate Arbab Amir Ayub Jan in the by-election on Oct 26.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2017