Sana won’t find a place to hide: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan Thursday, while promising to come to the federal capital fully prepared, warned Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah that he would not be able to hide in Islamabad.

Addressing a party convention to administer oath to local PTI office-bearers, he said freedom is never achieved easily and it needs sacrifices and jihad. “Those who control the system have become billionaires and trillionaires. These people will not give us freedom easily; the movement for real freedom is the biggest movement after the movement of Pakistan. Reciting the kalmia means we are free human beings,” he said.

The PTI chairman said: “The first intellectual revolution had come in the state of Madina and bowing down to the idol of fear is shirk in my eyes. My parents used to say that you are lucky to be born in a free country. I am a free man, I have never bowed down in front of anyone. When a person has belief, then Allah breaks the idol of their fear and who cannot control his fear, they can never become a prominent person. There are three great fears; of death, humiliation and sustenance, all the three fears make a man a coward.”

Imran again vowed to make foreign policy independent so that the country would not kneel in front of any other country. Some 80,000 Pakistanis, he recalled, were martyred in the war against terrorism. “The Sharif and Zardari families had allowed drone attacks; the war was being fought for the US and it was bombing us. There is no such example in the world,” he maintained.

The PTI chairman said they had talked to Russia five months ago to import wheat and gas, while the rulers were talking today as they were afraid because of their masters. He came hard on government policies and said Pakistan had the highest inflation in 50 years. Rana Sanaullah, he said, is threatening the PTI. “I promise you will not be able to hide in Islamabad. On May 25, we were not ready; you tortured women and children. Now we will come with preparation. Shehbaz Sharif is scared now,” he claimed.

Imran said that those involved in corruption cases were waiving their own cases, while people were drowning in inflation, which had reached 45pc. “The purpose of this government is to save its theft; they are running Pakistan according to the wishes of their foreign masters; there will be historic protests on Saturday,” he added.

Earlier, he said the PTI’s movement of Haqiqi Azadi had entered its final and decisive phase, and he would not rest until the country was liberated from the ‘corrupt’ rulers. He made these remarks during a meeting with presidents and general secretaries of the PTI North Punjab region, who called on him. PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, Amir Mehmood Kayani and Chaudhry Fawad Hussain also attended the meeting.

On the other hand, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that modern methods of firing tear gas shells and rubber bullets on protesters would be adopted in case the PTI protested.

Addressing the media, he said it was impossible to negotiate with a person like Imran Khan. “Imran has to prepare now as we are fully prepared. The Red Zone had been sealed as a precaution, but it is being opened today. The area will be closed when Imran Khan shows his intention to enter,” he added. The minister said that the use of drone shelling would also be considered. “The government has requested additional police force from other provinces and in case of refusal, action will be taken against the provinces under the Constitution,” he added.