SWABI: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Monday said people of Pakistan are the real decision-makers and would decide in the next general elections who would form government.

He once again called upon the youth to get ready to march on the federal capital to force the “looters” to announce a date for fresh polls.

“People were the real rulers and decision-makers and it is they who would decide in the polls who should govern them,” Imran Khan said while addressing a big public gathering in Gohati Cricket Stadium in connection with PTI’s mass contact drive.

Addressing the youth, he said: “You have to reach Islamabad on my call.”

Criticises former ally MQM-P, insists current set-up won’t be able to tackle economic situation

Lashing out at his former ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Mr Khan said: “The big terrorist (Altaf Hussain) was sitting in London.”

He said leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) did not take any step against Altaf Hussain who had targeted and eliminated police personnel for their participation in the Karachi operation in the early 1990s.

The operation was conducted by the then interior minister, Naseerullah Babar, during Benazir Bhutto’s government. However, later both the PPP and PML-N gave a free hand to the MQM which destroyed peace in Karachi, he said.

“There was a time when there was no police force in Karachi and Rangers had to assume the duty of providing security to citizens,” Mr Khan said.

The former prime minister said he would live and die in Pakistan and would not allow “thieves” to fulfil the agenda of their masters (America).

He said there was no honour for slaves and, therefore, “we will never accept the imported government of thieves and dacoits”. He called out Shehbaz Sharif for terming Pakistanis beggars, and added that one minister even said that “we are on ventilator”.

“We have to protect our country from these thieves,” he said.

Mr Khan said former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general Dr Rizwan had successfully pursued corruption cases worth Rs124 billion against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz.

“Now they are targeting the FIA to force it to follow their policy,” Imran Khan claimed, adding that “their greed for wealth never ends”.

He said Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was involved in the Model Town incident in 2014 in which scores of people were killed, but now he was enjoying an important position in government.

“Everybody knows that Nawaz Sharif has been convicted in a corruption case and left for London on the pretext of treatment in November 2019,” the PTI chairman said, adding that the court had allowed him to stay abroad for only four weeks, but till now he had not returned.

About the economic scenario in the country, Mr Khan said the situation had reached a point where it would be difficult for the “imported” government to tackle it as the value of Pakistani rupee continued to fall, inflation moved upward and the stock exchange had come under tremendous pressure.

He castigated Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, alleging that he was interested in a ministry in which he could make money.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2022