LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has advised students not to stay silent when they see the ‘corrupt’ and ‘dacoits’ roaming around.

“The youth should wage ‘Jihad’ against injustices and excesses being committed in the country,” he asked and added that he was already running a “Haqeeqi Azadi” (real independence) campaign to save and help the country rise amongst the comity of nations.

Mr Khan was speaking to the youth and particularly university students in his video-link address that was relayed at events organised by the Insaf Students Federation (ISF) in 29 universities and colleges across the country.

He said the Rule of Law Index clearly depicted that a country without even resources at hand could progress by leaps and bounds, while those having resources failed to achieve anything and cited the examples of Switzerland observing rule of law by 99.9 per cent, and Pakistan at less than 10pc on the index table.

Calls out Musharraf and Bajwa

Referring to the Sharif and Zardari families, he said the ‘gang of corrupts’ were in power during the past 30 years, looted the country’s wealth and later regrettably given NRO-I by former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf and lately NRO-II by ex-army chief retired Gen Bajwa.

Under the NRO-II, he said, PM Shehbaz Sharif’s son Suleman Sharif, who was an accused and absconder in the corruption and money laundering of Rs16 billion, had been dry-cleaned and same “privilege” would now be given to Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari.

“Gen (retired) Bajwa committed cruelty to the country by granting NRO-II to the gang of corrupt elements after installing their government through `regime change conspiracy’ and toppling the government, which was not accused of any corruption but leading the country to the record economic development.”

In this situation, he regretted, the talent pool of Pakistan was moving abroad to live in a society that could offer rule of law and justice and added that some 170,000 people moved abroad during the past seven months. “Instead of leaving this country in the hands of corrupt and looters, the nation should wage ‘Jihad’ against such elements and save this country that has been bestowed with all bounties by the Allah Almighty,” he stressed.

Mr Khan said he always wanted to make Pakistan a sovereign nation that should not be dependent on any power and offer an enabling environment to all segments of the society to progress and prosper.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2022