Zardari, Nawaz fear strong, patriotic army chief: Imran

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Sunday said former president Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif fear a strong and patriotic army chief, who could hold them accountable for the looted money they had stashed abroad.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said a new army chief was going to be appointed in November this year, and they [Zaradri and Nawaz] jointly wanted to appoint a favourite [general] as the next army chief. Both have committed corruption worth billions, and they wanted to appoint such an army chief who could provide protection to them and their corruption, Imran Khan alleged.

The PTI chief alleged that Shehbaz Sharif, his brother Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari had been involved in laundering the public money, and the two families had been looting the national exchequer for the last 30 years.

He reiterated that only fresh elections could end political instability in the country. He asked the youth to be prepared for his call for getting real independence in the country. The former premier announced another telethon for raising funds for the flood victims. Imran Khan said the PTI government had planted 10 billion trees to reduce the effects of climate change in Pakistan. “We will have to construct more dams. Our government had constructed 10 dams,” he said adding that “we need a proper drainage system across country to avoid such disasters.”

Imran Khan said: “When we came to Faisalabad for electioneering in 2018, the people of the city were facing unemployment and textile industries were shutting down. During 3.5 years of the PTI government, Faisalabad’s textile industry witnessed growth and people got employment, and farmers received timely payments.”

Khan said that record crop production was witnessed during the last two years of the PTI government. He added that the situation had totally changed now, as people were witnessing rise in unemployment and fuel prices after “an imported government was imposed through a foreign conspiracy”.

The PTI chief blamed the incumbent government for destroying the national economy in four months. He said that Faisalabad was an industrial city in Pakistan like Manchester. Khan vowed that factories would be established in Faisalabad and people would get employment if the PTI was given an opportunity to rule the country again.

He said that the PTI government had provided subsidies to masses after record collection of taxes during its tenure, instead of increasing the financial burden on the nationals. Imran Khan warned of another wave of inflation over the directions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Imran Khan’s speech evoked strong reaction among the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders. PMLN Senator Pervaiz Rasheed said Imran Khan was unaware of responsibilities of the army chief, spelled out in the Constitution of Pakistan. He said Khan was even unaware of the difference between NAB chief and the army chief. “Whose interests you wanted to serve by pitting people against the army chief,” he asked Imran Khan. He said Imran Khan’s today’s speech clearly showed why he had been spending sleepless nights. His speech in Faisalabad also made it clear that Shahbaz Gill’s speech was the consequence of Imran Khan philosophy of anarchy.

Pervaiz Rasheed said some days ago Imran was complaining that why the defence institutions were avoiding providing him political support. Today, he was demanding that heads of the defence institutions should help him crush his political opponents. “A man with such anti-constitution thoughts could be the blue-eyed of dictators but not a follower of Quaid-e-Azam,” added the PMLN leader.

Spokesperson for PDM Hafiz Hamdullah said that Imran Khan was master of only nonsense talk. In a statement issued here, he said that Imran Khan Niazi was neither an expert in Islam nor a political scientist. He said that the PTI chairman talked only nonsense, and he would be in Adiala Jail soon.