Nawaz, Zardari want loot and plunder: Imran

LAHORE: Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Saturday said Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari were two sides of the same coin, adding that they would never act against corrupt elements.

Talking to the media and later addressing a party convention here, he said Nawaz and Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah, through a planned strategy, had appointed corrupt persons as heads of institutions to escape accountability.

He said the country would only remain secure if the nation took to the streets against the corrupt rulers. He said all the prophets worked for social justice.

He also changed his Islamabad protest date from Oct 30 to Nov 2 and said the PTI members would chalk out a strategy for the long march on the federal capital.

Imran said his party members would not converge on the D-Chowk this time but block all the roads leading to the ministries and offices, adding, “We will not let them work this time.”

The PTI chief said cases against Ishaq Dar and Khursheed Shah were pending with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), while Nawaz and Zardari had seriously damaged the institutions to hide their misdeeds.

The PTI leader said it was obvious that laws for the Sharifs and Yusuf Raza Gilani were different in Pakistan.

He said the Sharif family was allowed to establish five sugar mills in southern Punjab though it was part of the country’s cotton belt and there was a ban on setting up sugar mills there.

Imran said he was glad at the LHC verdict that barred the Sharifs from illegal activity.

He said it was unfortunate that leaders like Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and others were seen standing humbly behind their party Chairman Bilawal.

He said a princess in the PML-N and a prince in the PPP in the form of Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were being promoted in negation of democratic norms.

“Is it possible in the US that in the absence of the head of the state his daughters would run the state affairs?”

He said it was time for the nation to rise up against the corrupt elements without which a change was not possible.

Imran said Nawaz was pushing the country towards disaster and those who say that Pakistan was prospering were in fact misleading the nation.

The PTI chairman voiced concern over the increasing volume of debt, saying the country had been put under massive burden of foreign loans.

He alleged that the rulers were involved in massive corruption and the details coming to the fore through the Panama Leaks were just a tip of the iceberg.

He asked Nawaz Sharif as to why he was scared of facing the accountability process if he was not guilty.

The PTI chief said if the institutions did not deliver justice, the nation would be left with no option but to take to the streets.

He said Nawaz had not been left with any option but to face accountability or to quit the government, adding that a huge crowd would turn up in Islamabad for a change.

Imran also lambasted Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal for his remarks that the “Supreme Court should remain in its limits”, saying that rather than passing such comments, he must check whether his leader Nawaz Sharif was in limits or not.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan also directed every ticketholder and sitting MNA and MPA from Punjab to reach Islamabad with a caravan of at least 1,000 workers each.

After reaching Lahore on Saturday, Imran held meetings with different delegations of traders, lawyers, rural and urban organisations of the party.

NNI adds: Imran said: “We are extending the plan to three days as Islamabad usually remains closed on Sunday. A final date in this regard will be announced later.”

Imran said: “Everyone should join politics. Quaid-e-Azam and Nelson Mandela were also politicians. To all those who are saying our shops and our businesses will be closed due to our protests, I say … think about the poor and the repressed classes.

“How can we justify to ourselves that so many of our fellow countrymen go hungry without two meals in a day? Pakistan will witness its biggest-ever protest in Islamabad this time.”

“Today Pakistan’s debt stands at Rs22,500 billion. Our exports and foreign remittances are falling. How are we going to cover all these debts?

“Nations like Pakistan are bound in chains of debt and then made to do the bidding of those we are indebted to. And on the other side is a handful of corrupt who are hanging on to this system for dear life that facilitates them.

“These are not democrats; they are a mafia. There are clear lines drawn in Pakistan today. On the one side is the awaam, on the other side is the mafia. The opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa says Nawaz Sharif should not be investigated. Where in the world do democrats talk like that? This is monarchy, not democracy. Even Chief Justice of Pakistan has endorsed my stance,” he added.