• Imran says govt striving hard to bring down prices by reducing taxes, duties on petrol imports
• Claims farmers reaping benefits of agricultural policies

GUJRAT: Kicking off his mass contact campaign with an address to a rally in Mandi Bahauddin on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan publicly admitted for the first time that sending former premier Nawaz Sharif abroad was his “biggest mistake”.

Mr Khan dared the opposition, particularly the Sharif family, to do whatever it wanted, “the kaptaan (captain) is ready to face you. Every move of the Sharifs will fail and they will go to jail”.

PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif has been in London since November 2019 when he was allowed by the government to leave for ‘medical treatment’. Last month, Federal Minister Asad Umar had revealed in a TV talk show that the decision to send Nawaz abroad was “100 per cent taken solely by Prime Minister Imran Khan”.

Then, on Wednesday, the Attorney General of Pakistan wrote to Nawaz Sharif’s cardiothoracic consultant in London, seeking an appointment for a team of government doctors to verify the former premier’s medical records. This was the fourth letter issued by the AGP office in recent weeks in its ongoing efforts for the repatriation of the PML-N leader from the UK.

Addressing the rally on the first stop of his campaign — ostensibly to counter the opposition’s moves to shore up support from government allies for a possible no-confidence motion against him — PM Khan said the opposition, particularly Shehbaz Sharif, Fazlur Rehman and Maryam Nawaz, were in hurry to bring a no-trust move to oust the government because they were upset it had refused to give them an NRO (relief in corruption references).

An aggressive PM claimed that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s problem was that for the first time he couldn’t find a seat in parliament and Shehbaz wanted to send the government packing as it had found “solid proofs” of corruption against him. The judiciary was independent now unlike during Nawaz Sharif’s tenures when his brother, Shehbaz, would allegedly call up judges to deliver verdicts of his choice, and attack or buy their loyalties.

He further remarked that PML-N leader Maryam was worried about the Chaudhry Sugar Mills reference against her and had started blackmailing judges through audio tapes. “Have you ever heard of a politician blackmailing judges through fake tapes as mafias do?” the PM asked the crowd, adding when the opposition had filed a case against him, he faced the courts and proved he was “sadiq and ameen”.

“I did not run away by seeking more time as Shehbaz Sharif does,” he asserted.

Moreover, Mr Khan said Pakistan had been put on the right course with record exports, tax collection and remittances. Acknowledging the adverse impacts of price hike and inflation on people’s lives, he said the government was striving hard to minimise the pressures by reducing taxes and duties on petrol import.

PM Khan urged the media to not only talk about the price hike, but also tell people about its causes such as disturbance in the food supply lines due to Covid-19 restrictions across the globe.

He said the US, UK, Germany and Turkey all faced inflation, which he asked the rally participants to check on Google. The government had formulated an independent foreign policy and did not take dictation from any other country, as there had been no drone attacks in Pakistan during the PTI’s government so far, while the previous rulers would act as silent spectators over such strikes, he claimed.

Mr Khan also claimed that farmers were reaping the benefits of his government’s agricultural policies, as he had introduced a law binding sugar mills to pay farmers on time. For the first time, the government had granted overseas Pakistanis voting rights, enhanced farmers’ income and ensured timely payments to sugarcane growers, he elaborated.

The prime minister further said the government was bringing about an IT revolution in the country as a 70 per cent rise in IT exports had been recorded. The government was also providing interest-free loans to the youth and Rs1 million health insurance to every family in Punjab, he added. Mr Khan said this was just the beginning and Pakistan would be turned into a welfare state with the health cards being the biggest step towards the goal.

The PM seemed to have spared the PPP leadership during Friday’s rally, as his criticism was only targeted at the Sharifs and Maulana Fazl.

Reportedly, PTI supporters from at least seven districts were transported to Mandi Bahauddin for the event. The local administrations of six districts of Gujranwala division as well as Jhelum and Sargodha facilitated the ruling party lawmakers and party officials in their respective regions in providing transport facilities for the rally.

Earlier, the PM landed in Mandi Bahauddin in a helicopter and held a meeting with at least 20 party lawmakers. He also laid the foundation of several uplift schemes for the district worth Rs30 billion.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022