LAHORE: Overjoyed by the victory of his party in the cantonment boards elections, Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq has lambasted the PTI leadership, saying that the “people’s tribunal” has thrown its weight behind the PML-N, therefore, Imran Khan should withdraw allegations of rigging in the general elections. Addressing a press conference at the press club here on Sunday, he said that the people again reposed trust in the PML-N’s manifesto as his party won majority of the seats in cantonment boards elections. Kh Saad, who had won NA-125 seat in the general elections marred by rigging allegations by the PTI, said that the PTI leadership should take back all the allegations of rigging in NA-125 as the PML-N had bagged 15 out of 20 seats from Walton and Lahore Cantonment areas, falling in the same constituency. He said: “If Imran Khan has the moral courage, he should not only take back the allegations but he should also reprimand those leaders, who misled him at the container about rigging.” He criticised the PTI leadership for its immaturity regarding handling political affairs. “We will continue teaching politics and decency to the PTI as we did during the Dharna stunt and afterwards by not accepting their resignations”, he said, adding that because of wisdom of the PML-N leadership, the PTI was back in the parliament, which they used to dub as fake. He said that the PTI made hue and cry of rigging and hampered the process of development in the country by staging Dharna in the federal capital but they could not submit any proof of the same to the Judicial Commission so far. He was of the view that any change in the country would come only through ballots as there was no space of any shortcut in Pakistani politics now. He claimed that his party’s nine workers were allegedly attacked and injured by the PTI workers in Chungi Amer Sidhu on the election day but they did not lodge the FIR against the PTI leadership as the PTI and the PAT did during their sit-ins. He further said that the ECP should have declared the local holiday in all the cantonments on the eve of election to provide maximum chances to the residents to cast their votes. He said that the people voted for the PML-N due to its ongoing development schemes. To facilitate the masses, Saad reminded that his government had put a cut on the prices of petroleum products due to decrease in their prices in the international market. He said that everyone was aware of his government’s efforts to address the energy shortage issue in the country. Commenting on the Karachi situation, Saad Rafiq said that the nation wanted to see Karachi as the city of lights and a peaceful place and every step would be taken in this regard. He said that Karachi would always remain a major source of revenue for the country. To a question, the PML-N leader said that on the insistence of the PTI, some changes were made in the joint resolution of the parliament on the Yemen crisis, which should have been avoided. MPA Imran Nazir and Punjab government spokesman Zaeem Hussain Qadri were also present.
