PTI eyes victory in polls despite 'political gimmick’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said Wednesday that despite “political engineering”, he foresaw his party’s victory in the next polls — be it general or by-elections.

While speaking to Punjab’s parliamentary party, the PTI chief said “no matter how much political engineering you resort to, the results will be the same as the by-elections,” but refrained from disclosing the names of people who were behind the act.

Khan said the PTI would be giving up both the assemblies — of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab — and the party will try to hold elections in the provinces.

“Once we head into the elections, we will win with a majority. When we have the majority, we will take decisions [without pressure],” the PTI chief said.

Khan also added that a decision would be made in the next couple of days regarding PTI’s next move, and said that the party would be successful in both provinces.

Asserting that the victory target the PTI had envisioned was not far, the PTI chief said that an independent member of the provincial assembly (MPA), Bilal Warraich, had joined PTI.

Moreover, the former prime minister asserted that PTI’s members of parliament and its allies had been told that the party had "no future".

“Our allies and people were threatened and told to join the PML-N and were tempted with money,” he said.

However, he added, those who talk about the “red line” do not understand history and politics, nor do they understand the "mood of the Pakistani population".

"Only the Pakistani population can draw a red line against anyone in the country," the PTI chief said.

Khan further criticised the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and alleged that ever since the multi-party alliance had assumed power, they were focused on ending their corruption cases and getting NROs.

He accused the PDM leader of not focusing on increasing the country’s exports and said that the PTI government was being falsely accused of weakening the economy.

Whenever the PML-N government leaves,” Khan said, “the economy defaults as in 2018 and 1999”.

Moreover, the former PM criticised the expenses incurred at the Geneva moot, and referred to it as merely “begging”. He also slammed the current government’s economic policies, saying that these policies would only ruin the economy further, and lead to an additional burden of inflation on the masses.

The PTI chief then addressed the judiciary of the county and asked “do we not have any rights?”

“We dissolved our assemblies in a fair and legal way, but attempts are being made at halting the elections, which is a democratic process because PDM leaders are scared of the elections.”

Referring to the day he was attacked, Khan said that he had called off his "Azaadi March" simply because he knew it would have ended in chaos, but “when have we ever resolved to violence?” he asked.

“I was aware that I would be a target during the long march, but when we arrived in Wazirabad, there was no police,” he said.