PTI MPs, allies being told red line marked on me, says Imran Khan

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said Wednesday that his party lawmakers and allies were being told that a red line had been marked on Imran Khan.

“Pakistan belongs to the Pakistanis. Only Pakistanis can mark a red line on someone. If some people are arrogant enough to think about red lining any personality, then they have no sense of politics, neither they read the history nor care for the country.”

While speaking to Punjab’s parliamentary party, Imran said the PTI will win the next polls, be it general or by-elections, Geo News reported.

“No matter how much political engineering you resort to, the results will be the same as the by-elections,” the PTI chief said, 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 said that a decision would be made in the next couple of days on PTI’s next move, and said that the party would be successful in both the 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 the 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 PMLN 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”. Imran 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 PMLN 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 country 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 were no police,” he said.