KARACHI: Hurdles being put by accountability institutions siding with the oppressors in the way of justice and a peaceful change will only presage a bloody revolution, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan warned the PML-N government on Monday.

When government institutions were siding with the oppressors and the powerful, where else should people go to seek justice but to take to the streets, added Mr Khan while talking to the media soon after landing at the Karachi airport.

For the sake of hiding his corruption, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was destroying the institutions, he said. Referring to the decisions of the National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq to reject the reference against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and to accept the one against himself, Mr Khan said the double standards exposed the bias of the speaker and even made the parliament controversial.

The PTI chief said the name of prime minister was mentioned in Panama papers along with eight world leaders. There was property worth billions of rupees in the name of his children — Hussain Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz and Meryem Nawaz — abroad, yet the Federal Bureau of Revenue and National Accountability Bureau were not ready to take action against those who plundered the country’s wealth, he said.

“Ishaq Dar too had assets abroad,” he added.

The flat in which Hasan Nawaz lives in London is worth 475,000 pounds (Rs65.55 million), while the Sharifs owned property worth Rs2.7 billion in and around Central London, Mr Khan said. “The Sharifs will have to tell people from where this money had come,” he said.

Announcing that he will lead a march towards Raiwind after the Eid, he said it would be a “historic protest” which would be joined by the people from across the country. He said he would invite all political parties to join the peaceful protest.

The N-Leaguers were hurling threats at PTI supporters without realizing that the former would soon have to face a humiliating defeat, he said.

“We will stage such a massive protest that the prime minister will have no opportunity to escape to Jeddah.”

Referring to the Borewala by-election, the PTI chief said the election commission did not take notice of rigging that affected its credibility.

In reply to another question, Mr Khan said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was being turned into a model province and the people could see the difference in police performance in the province.

Later, Mr Khan visited a strike camp of Pakistan Steel employees, who have been protesting against non-payment of salaries for the past five months, and expressed solidarity with them.

He said he went to each and every institution to draw their attention to the Panamagate so that action could be taken against the culprits but the institutions sided with the oppressors. He told the protesters that the plunderers would never take notice of their plight if they would not take to the streets.

Pakistan Zindabad Rally

Asking the Pakistan Steel employees to participate in the Pakistan Zindabad Rally at Nishtar Park on Tuesday, he said: “If your demands are not met by the Eid, our tigers will join you.”

He lamented that the Pakistan Steel that used to earn Rs8 billion was closed down with employees being denied their salaries. He said other institutions in the public sector, too, were facing the same crisis due to corruption.

Published in Dawn September 6th, 2016