Secular, religious parties join hands against PTI: Imran

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said on Wednesday that the secular forces in the form of Awami National Party (ANP) and religious party – Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had joined hands but the Captain would defeat them both in the coming Local Government elections.
He claimed that the general elections in the country would also be held this year.He said that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were being empowered through the best form of Local Government (LG) system and hoped it would usher in a new era of prosperity and governance in the province.
Addressing party workers at the Tehmas Khan Stadium, he said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would elect 45,000 representatives in the local government elections with 13 percent of the total country’s population while Punjab, having 60 percent population, would have 35,000 representatives under its LG system.
Earlier, the PTI leader addressed rallies in Mardan and Nowshera.He said the residents of Mardan would no longer be required to travel to Peshawar for decisions on their playgrounds, schools, hospitals, police, etc, because the LG system would enable them to make own decisions.
The PTI chief lauded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allowing him to address public meetings before the LG elections.He appealed to the voters to cast ballots in favour of his party’s candidates in the election to enable the party to continue its reforms agenda.
Imran Khan also criticised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) head Maulana Fazlur Rehman and added that he gave fatwas against ANP leaders but now both the old enemies had joined hands to defeat the PTI in the LG election. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari have also joined hands, but the PTI will defeat them, too,” he declared.
“We will bring hospitals, schools, and the police under the control of the people elected in the LG elections,” he pledged.He also admitted that the PTI-led KP government hadn’t delivered to a desired level because they were making new laws and doing spadework to prevent corruption in development schemes.
The PTI chief maintained that the people were wrong who said that Tsunami was over and said that it had just been started. “There is no political party in the country which can challenge the PTI’s programme of reforms,” he said.
Imran Khan said why the ANP didn’t hold LG polls during its tenure in government, saying it would have stopped avenue of corruption of the provincial government. He said the system would be free of the chief minister’s influence and funds would be spent transparently on people’s welfare. He said they were implementing European LG model that would be copied by other provinces due to its effectiveness.
Imran Khan said that the people in KP would feel a major difference in performance of public sector’s hospitals after introducing reforms in health sector.He said that he was not happy over PTI’s failure of creating more jobs for the people. But, he said, his party was for the first time in government and lacked experience.
“However, now our ministers and lawmakers have learnt skills of governance and they are on their way to translate PTI’s vision into reality,” he said.“We will bring hospitals, schools, and the police under the control of the people elected in the local government elections,” he pledged.
Imran Khan added that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police force was protecting people while the Punjab Police were killing them. He added that he was proud of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police that was serving the people.
He added the PTI-led provincial government would spend more money on education and health. “Our government has changed the Patwari system. Here in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa jobs are not sold,” he added.
“Nawaz Sharif said that he didn’t see change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He would have noticed the change if he had come out of the Governor’s House,” he sneered. Imran Khan admitted that it took a long time to form the Ehtesab Commission, but it would spare none. “This commission will hold everybody accountable, including the PTI ministers,” he declared. “He added that PTI would appear stronger in the province on May 30 and would win majority seats. A large number of party workers attended the public meeting.