KARACHI, Aug 11: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan on Sunday kicked off his election campaign by announcing three main points of his party’s election manifesto — provision of justice, promotion of human values and ensuring self-respect.

Addressing a public rally at Nishtar Park he said that he was launching his election campaign from Karachi as the city had always remained a centre of politics and democracy and any movement which began from the metropolis had soon taken the country into its grip. But he lamented that from the last few years this role had been denied to the city, which is a mini- Pakistan.

He recalled that in the past, the two main parties which remained in power one after the other had failed to implement their election manifestos because of lack of determination. But, Imran Khan said, for the last 25 years the nation had remained aware of his role as whatever he had promised he had honoured his commitments.

Imran Khan said he had derived the three points from Islam and added that the country could not be put to progress unless we are prepared to do justice with its ideology for turning Pakistan into a welfare Islamic state.

He said that all our crises were a result of our failure to do justice with our people. He said in our country only the weaker section of society was being made a victim of all repression and oppression while the powerful enjoyed immunity even after plundering the nation’s wealth.

In this connection, he referred to a report published in Dawn, in which names along with cheque numbers of those who had benefited from Rs500 crores of the Mehran Bank were published. He said these people were again in the field to contest the elections. The case of plundering the wealth has been pending in the court and was not being proceeded because of the influence of those involved in corruption, he maintained.

He pledged that his party would never involve in politics of power and would not make alliance with any party whose leader had been involved in corruption.

“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf believes in fair and free elections and will ensure the election to be conducted by a neutral umpire as I was the person who first introduced neutral umpire in the cricket world.”

He said the government had been trying to reform the system of education in religious institutions but was not paying heed to the English medium institutions, which had been producing Westernized youths devoid of Pakistani spirit.

He said no society could progress without giving due status and respect to its teachers, judges and religious scholars.

Spelling out the third point of the manifesto, he said the government had been acting on the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank and if Allah gave him an opportunity to serve the people, he would certainly repay their loans but would not take dictation from them.

The others who spoke on the occasion including Mairaj Mohammad Khan, Dr Arif Alavi, Zahid Bhurgari, Mir Haider Talpur, Tehmina Khattak, Bismillah Khan, Ashraf Quraishi, Fauzia Khan, Tufail Abbas and Amanullah Paracha.