‘Ill’ Zardari can’t do justice to presidency: Omar

ISLAMABAD: PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan Monday slammed the federal and Punjab governments for allegedly unleashing a reign of terror on the peaceful PTI protestors and urged the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice of the situation.

Addressing a press conference here along with the PTI’s candidates for Islamabad Shoaib Shaheen, Advocate Ali Bukhari and Aamir Mughal, he blasted the ‘fake, unconstitutional, inept and petrified’ governments in the centre and Punjab for unleashing a reign of terror on the peaceful protestors, who took to the streets against the ‘theft’ of the public mandate.

Omar said peaceful protests were held across the country against theft of public mandate but the Punjab police detained the PTI leaders and around 100 workers in various cases of serious nature, including terrorism, on the directives of ‘fake’ Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

He reiterated that the PTI had secured 180 National Assembly seats but the party candidates’ clear lead was converted into defeat through a massive rigging and manipulation of results.

He vowed that they would exercise all options, including the judiciary, the parliament and holding peaceful protests, within the ambit of the law and constitution to get back the ‘stolen’ seats.

He criticised the Punjab police for detaining the PTI senior leaders Salman Akram Raja and Latif Khosa. Omar said the prime minister and Punjab chief minister were illegal because they were elected from the incomplete houses.

He said the Islamabad police were also involved in worst human rights violations, adding that they were sitting as dacoits in police uniforms.

He alleged that IGP Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan, SSP Operations Malik Jamal Zafar and District Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon had violated the human rights and selectively tortured the PTI workers.

The PTI secretary general vowed that the police would be held accountable for their transgressions and human rights abuses, adding that the party would audit their accounts by summoning them in the Public Accounts Committee, the privileges committees, human rights committees or the interior committee.

Omar said he would not call the police officials as officers but personal servants of Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam, adding that they would be summoned and questioned about how they were violating their oaths.

About the IMF loan program, Omar feared that the ‘illegitimate and unconstitutional’ government would waste the loan taken from the IMF because the current government neither had the legitimacy or guts nor the moral power to take the much-needed tough and correct decisions to appropriately utilize the fund, which was taken as a last resort to fix the economy.

He said the poor health of President Asif Ali Zardari did not allow him to take this serious responsibility.

About the ‘back-breaking’ inflation, Omar said the PDM government had trigged a flood of inflation and the situation deteriorated during the caretaker government.

He lamented that former first lady Bushra Bibi was unjustly confined to a small room, adding that her meal issues had not yet been resolved.

He made it clear that Bushra Bibi was not being given the entitled facilities.

Omar said the PTI leadership’s topmost priority was to ensure an earliest release of the party leadership including Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervaiz Elahi and others.