Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday reiterated his positions against the government on various issues at a press conference at his Bani Gala residence.

He also announced to convene a rally in Islamabad where the public would be invited to express solidarity with the judiciary and the constitution.

“[These] rulers are damaging national institutions just to save their stolen money. Constitution and democracy are both being assaulted,” he said, adding that Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif was receiving a salary from a company based in Dubai and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was involved in the LNG scandal and now he was protecting Nawaz Sharif.

“Those who have siphoned off the country’s wealth abroad could bring nothing but a Qatari letter in their defence,” he said, adding that the judiciary’s efforts for democracy were laudable. “Pakistan’s judiciary has reached this point after a long struggle. We [PTI] were part of that struggle and so was the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N),” he said.

Talking about the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Panama Papers case, he said, “Nawaz Sharif’s lies have been exposed, time and again and those were enough to drive him to jail.”

Commenting on the military’s role, he said that the military had derailed democracy in the past, recalling that he himself was imprisoned during the dictatorial regime of General Pervez Musharraf. However, he said, under the command of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the military was clear on the sanctity of the constitution and democracy.

Published in Daily Times, February 22^nd 2018.