LAHORE, Sept 5: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has urged upon all important opposition parties to make a joint effort for frustrating the government’s “efforts to manoeuvre” the results of upcoming elections.
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr Khan said he had already discussed the issue with PPP chief Makhdoom Amin Faheem and Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Husain Ahmad and would soon contact other affected parties to chalk out a joint strategy.
Asked if a boycott of polls could also be an option in the strategy, he said the PPP’s 1985 boycott had proven that the option was a damaging one as it scattered the vote-bank.
“It is better to contest polls. The masses could be approached after the elections like they were in 1977,” he added.
The PTI chief did not agree with the suggestion that absence of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto would affect the voters’ turnout. He said the turnout in 1997 polls was the lowest ever at a time when both Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto were contesting the elections.
Answering another question, the PTI chief said the former premiers should come back and have themselves absolved of all charges in courts before contesting the elections.
He alleged that the rulers wanted a low turnout on October 10, which would help them get the desired results more easily. It was for this reason that certain restrictions had been imposed on electioneering so that the parties could not mobilize people to come out and vote.
However, he said the people would come out of their homes on the polling day if the parties succeeded in giving them some issue to vote for, as was done by Shaikh Mujeebur Rahman in 1970.
Mr Khan said he could detect an anti-government wave among the masses, which would become evident when the parties would launch their election campaigns.
Despite all the pre-poll rigging, the government-backed candidates would be defeated if there was no rigging on the polling day, which, he warned, would result in chaos and commotion in the country.
He said a hung parliament would be as detrimental to the interests of the country as rigging the elections. Various groups in a hung parliament would try to exploit the situation to their advantage, he added.
Development projects were being executed on the recommendations of PML-QA candidates, whose public meetings were being organized on the premises of state-run schools, he regretted. The Election Commission had accepted the candidature of a man who had secured his release after striking a bargain with the NAB, he added.
“There has been rigging in the past. However, this time it is being done openly and at an alarming, unprecedented level,” said Mr Khan, whose nomination for a Mianwali National Assembly seat was okayed on Thursday when he presented original credentials.
Answering a question about his success in mobilizing the young voters, he said his party’s election campaign would show how much support it enjoyed among the masses. The PTI had organized the biggest public meeting of the year in Karachi, he added.
He announced that he would move the court against Chaudhry Shujaat Husain allegation that money collected for Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital was being spent on PTI election campaign.
“If I do not move the court, I would damage credibility of the hospital which is spending Rs650 million per annum on treatment of cancer patients,” he maintained. The expenditure, he said, was far more than the total expenditure of Fatima Jinnah Medical College and Ganga Ram Hospital.