HYDERABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf secretary general Asad Umar has said that his party’s struggle is not aimed merely at making Imran Khan prime minister again but it is geared towards dismantlement of the 70 year old system in which the “powerful” decide people’s destiny behind closed doors under external powers’ patronage.

“The primary aim of the PTI is to do away with this system because it is major cause of Pakistan’s problems,” he said while addressing members of Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) and party workers at separate programmes here on Tuesday.

He said that people from every strata of society were participating in this struggle and “they want that decisions for them should be taken by their genuinely elected representatives alone”. Only people would have power to elect or reject their representatives, he said.

He said that if a group of people ruled with the help of the “powerful” or external forces they would not be taking decisions for masses and the country had been witnessing its worst example for past three months. “The present government has renamed ‘price hike’ as ‘difficult decisions’ although it is the easiest way to raise prices (to generate revenue),” he said.

He said that currency devaluation used to happen in months previously, then it began to be seen within weeks and now rupee was shedding value within hours. If prices of petrol, electricity and gas were raised, it caused hike in prices of all essential commodities and transport and eventually affected masses directly, he said.

“But the PM has recently said he is least bothered about the impacts of price hike. It is not an issue whether masses are happy or not because those who have given ‘ashirbad’ to PM are happy,” he said.

He said that Punjab’s 80pc by-poll results went in PTI’s favour. “Can anything else reflect will of people as strongly as the by-poll result?” he observed.

He said the party’s struggle was nearing its successful end. All surveys had showed that 75pc people had rejected April 9 regime change. “We saw people switching loyalties and selling their conscience during the regime change operation in assemblies. Had it been people’s will, there would not have been any uproar but PTI can’t accept that external interference leads to regime change in a country of 220m,” he said.

Umar said that Sindh would also witness change like Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where sun had set on politics of ANP and JUI-F while PML-N’s politics had been buried in Punjab.

He disclosed that Imran Khan was scheduled to visit Hyderabad to lay foundation stone for Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway but for regime change.

Earlier, retired Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi, who had joined PTI soon after no April 9, said that he had seen many political parties but decided to join PTI after finding Imran Khan to be a true leader.

Powerless LGs

Umar said later at the party workers’ convention that Sindh’s local government system was powerless as it did not transfer real authority to local government representatives.

He said this system was designed purposely to ensure ‘one family’ perpetuated in rule and all resources remained at its disposal. The system forced people to keep looking towards them for jobs, admission to colleges or transfer etc, he said.

He said that powers were devolved in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where basic health units were built and people were getting jobs on the basis of merit. The party was struggling to introduce a new system in which all citizens were served without discrimination of caste, creed and colour, he said.

He said that Hyderabad had paid a heavy price in the past when families received bodies of their loved ones but they did not get potable drinking water to date.

He said that Imran Khan said “absolutely not” to the powerful country when it demanded airbases and no leader had previously had the courage to say no. “A ‘mazloom’ is sitting on a chair but he does not know why this has happened to him. Let me tell you prime minister that your agony is going to end soon as your government will be sent packing,” he said.

Now, he said, people would see ‘balla’ ruling right from Hyderabad to Ghotki and Larkana in general election, and urged people to come out in large numbers on July 24 for real “freedom”.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2022