KARACHI, Jan 24: Chairman of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan has said that the proposed All-Parties Conference (APC) convened by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in February/March this year would help differentiate the genuine opposition parties and those supporting the military-led regime.

Speaking at the Karachi Press Club’s “Meet the Press” programme here on Wednesday, he noted that opposition parties were left with no choice but to approach masses for the restoration of genuine democracy and getting people rid of dictatorship.

He observed that even courts were not providing justice, claiming that there were some ‘no-go areas’ for the higher courts in the country.”

Imran Khan said that the government had so far succeeded in keeping opposition parties scattered, otherwise they would have given tough time to the military-led regime.

Criticising the government for its handling of Balochistan issue and the treatment meted out to former chief minister of that province Sardar Akhtar Mengal, he said the government was creating a situation that had developed following a similar treatment meted out to Shaikh Mujeebur Rehman in the past.

The PTI chief said that lawlessness and price-hike appeared to be the most pressing issues affecting masses, but instead of resolving them, the rulers were busy making tall claims of progress and development and undertaking foreign visits.

He pointed out that the president and military chief was addressing the ruling party’s public meetings to drum up support for it in the next general elections. He alleged that the present regime was at the centre of the country’s biggest financial scams.

He termed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ‘a political arm of the government’, and observed that the NAB had completely failed in achieving the objectives for which it had been set up.

Imran Khan said that Karachi had always played a leading role in the struggles launched against dictatorships in the past but this time, Karachiites were not playing their same historic and traditional role, owing to ethnic politics, for the restoration of democracy.

“Without the presence of ‘neutral umpires’, the next general elections cannot be held in a free, fair and transparent manner,” he remarked, and urged opposition parties to forge unity and approach masses to remove the dictator instead of pinning hopes with others.

PTI Sindh President Zubair Khan and other leaders were present on the occasion.—PPI