Do whatever you want, PTI can’t be defeated: Imran

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan said Wednesday there was no independent inquiry into the May 9 incidents.

Talking to the media in the Adiala Jail, the PTI leader alleged that the caretaker government, establishment and Election Commission were working against his party. “Do whatever you want, take away election symbols, you cannot defeat the PTI,” he remarked.

He said his hand was on the pulse of the people, and the anger of people would come out on February 8. He told newsmen he did not meet Sheikh Rasheed in the jail.

The PTI founder said “such pre-poll rigging” had never happened in history. They would rig the elections on February 8 too, he claimed. He said he had only one deal and that was fair and transparent elections. “This is not an election but a struggle for freedom,” he observed. He informed the media he had applied for the postal ballot facility.

Khan alleged that Section 144 was imposed after his statement asking party leaders and workers to start the election campaign on Sunday. Now, he predicted, the PTI would not get permission for meetings and rallies. He said Nawaz Sharif might have got Section 144 imposed. He claimed that no one was coming to Nawaz Sharif’s public meetings, in which PTI slogans were being raised.

He said Nawaz Sharif himself was sitting at home thinking they had selected him, and there was no need for an election campaign. He said his party would field another candidate if any candidate was arrested.

Khan said they (the authorities) were afraid of the people, and his party candidates were not being allowed to display his picture. He said that whoever was involved in May 9 violent incidents should be arrested with the help of CCTV footage. He added that suspects involved in the Capitol Hill attack in the US were also arrested with the help of CCTV footage. Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he and the PTI founder had applied for the postal ballot facility to exercise the right to vote from prison. Talking informally to the media in the courtroom in the Adiala Jail, he said that if Section 144 was imposed, how the PMLN and the PPP would hold rallies. “Under Section 144, our candidates and workers will be subjected to searches and arrests,” he feared. Qureshi said they rely on the people’s court, and the people would use their vote despite all the tricks.

Meanwhile, PTI lawyer Barrister Salman Safdar said the party founder had prepared a strategy to help the PTI get rid of cases. Talking to the media outside the Adiala Jail, he said he met the PTI founder after one month, and all the cases were discussed in the meeting.

Salman Safdar said the high court had restored the bail of the PTI founder in all the May 9 cases. “At present, the PTI founder is not arrested in any case except the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir case,” he said. The PTI founder noted that the criminal cases were linked to the elections, Safdar said.