PESHAWAR, April 16: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan has pledged that his party will rid the nation of the class-based educational system and will declare an education emergency in the country if his party came into power.

“The existing education system is making the rich richer and the poor poorer,” he said, while speaking at a conference on education, held at Yar Hussain, Swabi district, on Monday.

The party’s provincial chief, Nawabzada Mohsin Ali Khan, and Swabi Nazim Sher Zaman Sher also spoke.

The PTI chief observed that the curriculums of the country’s educational institutions had become outdated and that they could not provide quality education to the people. He said the British government had introduced the class-based educational system to rule over the Muslims of the sub-continent.

He remarked that the previous governments had not bothered to change the education system. He announced that his party would introduce one curriculum throughout the country.

Supporting the government’s policies, Mr Khan said President Gen Pervez Musharraf was a straightforward and honest person and that was why his party supported the referendum being held on April 30.

He alleged that former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had plundered the nation and that the country had borrowed loans of $70 billion during the last 11 years.

The nation, he maintained, had two options; to extend Musharraf’s tenure for another five years to continue his reforms’ programme, or to allow the corrupt elements to bankrupt the country.

Mr Khan called upon the people to take part in the referendum.