Daily Times

KOHAT: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said that disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif deceived the courts as well as the people, and added that those voting in favour of a disqualified person were not loyal to the country.

Talking to the media in Kohat, the PTI chairman took an exception to the PMLN and allied parties for passing the legislation that allows a disqualified person to head a political party.

He was referring to National Assembly session that voted against Nawaz-specific amendment to election laws, seeking to restore the bar on a disqualified person from holding party office.

He said that Nawaz Sharif looted money from Pakistan and sent it abroad illegally. He said that he had bought a flat in London in 1984 worth six million rupees when he was number one all-rounder in the world.

Khan claimed that he submitted 60 documents regarding his money trail in the apex court whereas Nawaz failed to produce even one. He said he provided documentary evidence to corroborate his claims in the court but all the Sharif family could bring in their defence was a Qatari letter.

Imran also affirmed that he did not hold any public office when he purchased the property, and that was the reason he was not answerable.

Imran also talked about the Elections Act, 2017, and said those 160 members of the National Assembly (MNAs) should be ashamed of themselves who helped Nawaz Sharif in retaining his party post and saved him from ouster.

The PTI chairman claimed that people of Pakistan would let everyone know whether the change had come or not in the next general election. He commented that Nawaz asked in Abbottabad about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) progress. The ousted premier was addressing the people without using a bulletproof glass, and that itself proved the change and progress made by KP, Imran maintained.

He said ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, who used to stay abroad, was also addressing public rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the peace brought back by the police.

He said that he bought a flat in London in 1984 when he was the richest all-rounder in the world. He asked, “When I can provide the details being a cricket player then why can’t they?” “They didn’t even have the answer to the questions raised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he said.

He said that the responsibilities of protecting the nation’s wealth rested with the rulers. He asked whether national representatives were supposed to support those looting the country’s wealth. “Who makes a person involved in looting national exchequer their party leader?” he said.

Imran said his party’s provincial government empowered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police department. “We didn’t allow any political interference in the police department,” he said. “We just chose the best possible inspector general to lead it.”

The PTI chairman stated that the political opponents tried to play politics on the Dera Ismail Khan girl issue. “I called the IG myself after two days of the incident and sought a report,” he said, adding that the provincial government depoliticised the police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had started producing results. “Today the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police does not follow anyone’s instructions, it works by the book. It doesn’t take dictation from any Raiwind.”

He said that he was proud of the police department’s performance, particularly in the Mashal Khan and Dera Ismail Khan cases.

He said that the state had to ensure provision of justice to the common man. “Non-provision of justice creates anarchy and unrest,” he said. He said that his party would be elected to power in 2018 general election on the basis of its performance.

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2017.