PML-N, PPP on my hit list, not MQM: Imran Khan

OXFORD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf leader and former cricket hero Imran Khan has declared that PML-N and PPP were respectively on his hit list, not the MQM – the party which Imran Khan once vowed to hound and wound everywhere, including in the English courts but then gave up soon.
The former cricket hero was speaking to a packed hall of Pakistan students and academics in the Oxford Union’s Room on the occasion of the 4th annual Pakistan Future Leaders’ Conference on Saturday evening. Imran Khan was accompanied to his former alma mater by his former wife Jemima Khan and their two sons Salman and Qasim Khan. Imran Khan received rousing welcome by Pakistani students from nearly 40 Pakistani student societies from across various UK universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, SOAS, and Leeds Metropolitan.
Khan said he “went after” Altaf Hussain after his party activists were hit in Karachi during the chief justice of Pakistan’s visit to the city when scores died in violent clashes and the leading party in the city, MQM was blamed by many for initiating the fight to appease Pervez Musharraf, who had sacked the top judiciary.
Khan said he was clear in his mind that if he was going to win then he needs to focus and carefully pick up his fights. “The key to success is to narrow down and focus on what you do and you will win”.
He said PML-N and PPP between them had majority seats and were “two big crocodiles with majority seats”.
Imran claimed that his party was poised to “sweep” the coming general election and no power could stop his party from shaking up the decades old party system, which Khan was based on “status quo” and as part of the deal between the two main parties. “Since I started politics 16 years ago, people have made fun of me and mocked me and called me a failure and advised me to compromise and negotiate but i didn’t give up on my beliefs and

kept on fighting for my beliefs. People asked me to become normal and make compromises. The only reason why PTI is by far the fastest growing Pakistani party is because Pakistanis have now realised that that it is the only party they can trust for change.
He was questioned by students if he was setting high ambitions and will disappoint his followers in the event of electoral losses, Khan said he had no doubt that his party will win and said that he was going to set the tone with “probably the biggest crowd in the history of Pakistan on 23rd of march at the Minar-e-Pakistan which will be the tsunami that has never been witnessed before as 80,000 elected people will be taking oath”. He said holding intra-party elections was a great risk but he took this risk to set up a precedent that things can be done in true democratic sense in Pakistan. “Other parties are scared of holding internal voting because they want to preserve the system of emperors.”
Khan told students that they represented only a tiny English speaking privileged minority as only around 800,000 out of 30 million students have access to English medium education in a system which is divided into English, Urdu and madrasa medium schools. He said his party, if elected, will introduce devolution in all departments to empower local people and decentralise and detox the system which is crumbling and encourages corruption. He called on all parties to come clean and declare the assets of their candidates before the public so that people can elect people on the basis of their credibility. He said people’s taxes should be spent on the welfare of common people, not on the cavalcades of VIPs who have plundered the poor people.
He called once again to disengage from the ‘war on terror’ and take away the jehadi narrative from those who think they are fighting jihad against the US and its allies. 90 billion Rupees are being spent every month by Pakistan due to this war, Khan said, adding that this money should be spent on people’s development and truth and reconciliation process.
Imran Khan said that a true leader is accountable to his people and he doesn’t reflect fear through his body language and actions.