PESHAWAR, July 14: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Saturday said the government could neither stop US drone strikes in tribal areas nor was it capable of ending power loadshedding.

Addressing a big rally in the provincial capital against resumption of Nato supply and excessive power cuts, Mr Imran said his party was the only party that had the capability to permanently solve energy crisis.

“Only PTI with the support of youth can end the vicious cycle of the US slavery under which Pakistanis have been put by the rulers. We have mineral and gas resources in abundance that can not only fulfill our needs but can also be exported,” he said.

The PTI chief said as long as Pakistan fought the US-led war against its own people, crisis would linger on. He said killing innocent people in drone attacks created a sense of deprivation among people and caused violence.

Flanked by party leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Makhdoom Javid Hashmi, Mr Imran said a PTI delegation would soon visit Waziristan tribal region to express solidarity with the families whose members had been killed in drone strikes.

He added that he would present before media the relatives of the innocent people killed in drone strikes in Waziristan.

The PTI chief said President Zardari couldn’t stop the US from attacking civilians in tribal areas and that such a policy tended to backfire and create more enemies.

“We have learnt from experiences that wars have no military solution. Dialogue is the only answer to the long drawn conflict in Fata,” he said. Mr Imran said the government should issue names of the people killed in drone strikes.

He asked why innocent people were being killed when they had committed no wrong.

The PTI chief said resumption of Nato supply was in total disregard of parliament’s resolution and the people’s aspirations and was a big blunder on part of the government.

He said his party would raise voice for injustices committed everywhere in the country.

Mr Imran asked the government to stay away from taking confrontation with the judiciary and warned that a PTI-led tsunami would hit Islamabad if the Zardari government continued to confront judiciary.

“Are those killed in drone strikes not human beings,” he said asking Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan to reply.

He said the people had pinned hope in ANP but the Asfandyar-led party leadership was involved in corruption along with Zardari.

Meanwhile, PTI workers complained of mismanagement at the rally and said they couldn’t hear or see their leader.

“Even the people standing 10 feet away from Imran Khan couldn’t see or hear him due to faulty loudspeakers and mismanagement,” said Zafarullah Khattak, a Peshawar district city former PTI president.

He said the rally was organised by Peshawar chapter of PTI but a large number of workers turned up from other districts creating problems for organisers.

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...