SUKKUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawyer Barrister Shoaib Shaheen, the party’s Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh and General Secretary Advocate Ali Palh, along with many other leaders, held a press conference in the local press club on Monday to express their gratitude to the people of Sindh for making the Karachi-Sukkur train march, held on Sunday, a big success.

Speaking on behalf of the party leadership, Barrister Shaheen also appreciated the role of journalists in reporting the event and fulfilling their professional duty diligently in these “challenging times”.

He said the entire nation supported PTI founder Imran Khan “who is committed to the supremacy of Constitution and law in the country” and fighting against all those forces which were blatantly violating it.

He expressed concern over violation of fundamental rights by the illegal occupants of the power corridor and their facilitators saying that an electoral fraud was committed with the masses in the Feb 8 general elections. “PTI candidates who had won their seats were declared losers and those who were rejected by the masses were propelled to power through fake Form 47s,” he said, adding that “even [top PML-N leaders] Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were defeated in their constituencies”.

Barrister Shaheen observed that the establishment, Election Commission of Pakistan and entrenched corrupt politicians considered Imran Khan as a threat to their common vested interest. They believed that Mr Khan’s coming to power again would mean compliance of the Constitution and law, and restoration of 250 million Pakistanis’ fundamental rights, he added.

Deploring certain politicians for parking their wealth abroad and thus contributing to growing inflation and unemployment in Pakistan while pushing common man into the quagmire of problems, he said these were the same politicians who had been promising to bring down inflation after coming to power. “Today, inflation has surged ten times higher than it was before their coming to power,” he said, and noted that IMF had included Pakistan in the list of ‘war-torn economies’.

Half of Pakistan’s population was now below the poverty line because a system of Constitution and law was not in place, he said.

The PTI lawyer also noted that no country now appeared ready to make investments in Pakistan.

Barrister Shaheen told the media that development in the country was not possible until a strong and fair judicial system was put in place.

“How can there be development in this country where judges are struggling for justice for themselves,” he remarked, and asserted that the “judiciary has the responsibility to protect the rights of 250 million people”.

He said that if the country’s wealth stolen by certain politicians and other money launderers was brought back from Dubai and London, the value of US dollar would fall to Rs50.

He concluded by stating that Sindh was now waking up and cited the fervour people of this province demonstrated during the Sunday train march.

Barrister Shaheen also deplored “the politics of vendetta” resorted to by the ruling PPP in Sindh.

The PTI leader also demanded exemplary punishment to the killers of senior journalist Jan Mohammad Mehar.

A similar press conference was addressed by Barrister Shoaib Shaheen, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Advocate Ali Palh and other PTI leaders at the residence of Mir Raja Khan Jakhrani in Jacobabad.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2024