PTI anti-govt movement from Saturday: Imran

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has announced launching an anti-government movement from Saturday.

Addressing a lawyers convention here Wednesday, Imran Khan said the need of the hour was to restore the rule of law in the country. Lamenting lack of justice in Pakistan, he said a society that did not have the rule of law got destroyed. He said there was an unequal justice system in the country where only small-time thieves got caught.

Urging lawyers to stand up for law and governance in the country, Imran said he needed their support and backing. Citing the Western countries, the PTI chief said no one got threats from unidentified numbers and opponents were not intimated like here.

“Law enforcers have become law breakers and they are committing injustices to the people.” He also cited Shahbaz Gill and said he was stripped and brutally tortured in custody. He said Gill was an assistant professor in a US university and was not a terrorist or a hardened criminal.

Taking the lawyers community into confidence over threatening calls to PTI members from unidentified people, Imran said it seemed as if the country was governed under some despotic rule and the law of cruelty prevailed.

Mentioning but not naming Shehbaz Sharif, the PTI chief said that a person whose children were convicts was made the chief executive of the country. He said he (Shehbaz Sharif) had recently visited London to consult an absconder (Nawaz Sharif) on appointment of the new army chief.

He said that since the present rulers came into power through a foreign conspiracy, they had caused an irreparable loss to Pakistan beyond one’s imagination. The present rulers had their NAB cases quashed.

Unveiling his plan to put the house in order again, Imran said the PTI would ensure the rule of law after coming into power. He said if 0.5 million expats invested in Pakistan, the country would not need to go to the IMF.

He asserted the country’s economy would not improve until a true justice system was installed. It was necessary to save Pakistan from economic meltdown and inflation. He expressed the resolve to save Pakistan from inflation through collective efforts. Later, Imran also held a meeting with his Punjab team.

Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said that if PTI long marchers try to approach the D-Chowk, they will be fumigated. He was talking to media people after attending the opening ceremony of a seminar on ‘Trafficking in Persons’ jointly organised by the Federal Investigation Agency and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as the chief guest, Wednesday.

He said Imran Khan was misleading, dividing the nation and maligning state institutions. The minister said the provinces’ support to the long march would be a violation of the Constitution and there would be consequences.

“The Constitution empowers the federal government to act in such a situation and I would ask the cabinet and prime minister to exercise that power,” he said. Rana Sanaullah said that action would be taken against the participants in the PTI long march if they attempted to approach the D-Chowk.

The agitators could gather at F-9 Park or some other place, as the apex court has already guided in this regard, he said. Regarding law and order in the capital, he said all were equal before the law and no one would be allowed to take the law into his own hands.

He criticised Imran Khan’s attitude and said that no one could negotiate with him. Talking about the Toshakhana case, he said the former prime minister was involved in embezzlement and he had received around Rs260 million by selling gifts in the market. Responding to the question regarding legislation related to the transgender community, the minister said that everything should be decided in the light of religion.