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LAHORE, Dec 21: Teheek-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan says the present government is an anti-people set-up with misplaced priorities. “The rulers are spending billions of rupees in security and other useless heads, but they are not ready to reduce oil prices which are on the slide in the international market,” Khan told a news conference.
The government, he said, was trying to make money by piling misery on its people, which should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
About his meeting with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he said it was an effort to get the entire opposition on board on one-point agenda — removal of military dictatorship and restoration of genuine democracy in the country.
In addition to it, he added, Pakistan also needed independent judiciary, election commission and National Accountability Bureau.
The PTI, he said, was of the opinion that all parties should join hands to play their role in the restoration of democracy. “If these parties do not join hands, the general will manipulate elections, impose a dummy government on the people and have another subservient man elected as prime minister.”
Should that happen, he warned, the country would neither get any foreign investment nor development.
The PTI, according to him, was striving hard to get all parties attend the APC at London so that they could play an effective role.
Flanked by other party leaders, Imran Khan took exception to the Punjab government for imposing opposition-specific Section 144. He said the chief minister, along with President Pervez Musharraf, had been holding election rallies at state expense but was not allowing opposition to hold such rallies.
He termed the finalisation of civil nuclear deal between India and the US a failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
“The government of Pakistan is killing its own people in order to please its American masters. In spite of offering every kind of incentive on Kashmir to India, the military ruler has failed to get any concession in return.”
The Pakistani government, Khan added, was doing everything under the sun to please the US government, which in turn was busy pleasing India.
KHOSA: The PML-N may boycott general elections in case the exercise is not free and fair.
At a reception here on Thursday, party’s Punjab president Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa told Lahore US Consulate’s principal officer Bryn D. Hunt that they would opt for boycott in case there was enough evidence of rigging.
Answering a query by Hunt, he said the PML-N would not enter into any election alliance and would go for the polls on its own contrary to the impression being given by some opposition parties.
Also present on the occasion, PML-N foreign affairs coordinator Muhammad Mahdi doubted the present rulers claims of holding fair elections.
Mr Hunt said that the US was in close contact with all the quarters concerned to ensure a level playing field for all political parties in general election.
