Companies are ruling country, says Imran

‘There is Sharif company in Centre, Punjab, Fazl, Achakzai company in Balochistan, Zardari company in Sindh, Asfandyar company in KP’

QUETTA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that companies were running the country.

He said that incumbent leaders were running the country like the British-era East India Company. “Our country is being run like a company,” he said and added, “In the Centre and Punjab, we have Sharif company, in Sindh, we have Zardari company, in Balochistan there is Fazlur Rehman and Achakzai company and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), we have Asfandyar company.”

He warned if a ban was imposed on social media, his party would take to roads to protest such a move. He said that Balochistan has fine climate and natural resources but corruption has dragged it into poverty.

Addressing a public rally here on Friday, he said, “Pakistan has been bestowed with all kind of weather and precious minerals but why poverty has blanketed the country as corruption is the main cause of poverty.”

He said, “The northern areas mountains are more beautiful than those of Switzerland and also are also rich with precious minerals but rulers are busy in looting country’s wealth causing unemployment and poverty in Pakistan.”

Lashing out at rulers, Imran said that the tax money went to rulers and they plundered it and used it for widening their own business. Commenting on money laundering, PTI chairman said that Rs100 billion had gone to Dubai through money laundering annually and rulers used it for enhancing their own business.

“The Baloch are being plundered more than the people of other parts of the country and therefore they don’t have basic necessities,” he said adding that Balochistan was not given its due share from federation.

“Mushtaq Raisani plundered Rs2.5 billion and you know where this money came from,” he asked and replied that such money came from public pockets. Commenting over Kalbhushan case, he said that he admitted himself that he was an Indian agent and involved in subversive activities in Karachi and Balochistan.

PTI leader while lamenting rulers said that JIT should also investigate the Sharif family’s business abroad as time had come that Nawaz Sharif must unveil his wealth abroad. He warned government was trying to silence media and if rulers did not stop such practice, PTI would come out on the roads.