Daily Times

HAFIZABAD:Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday said that unless a nation stood united against corruption, injustices and sex crimes, these forms of evils would continue to bulge, resulting in the degeneration of a society.Addressing a mammoth crowd here, the prime minister said that a true leader would not bow or please anyone at the sake of his nation and country.“Our previous prime minister sat before the US president trembling and holding a paper in his hand. Will such kind of leaders can raise self-respect of a nation!” he said without naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with former US president.

The prime minister said a true leader always raised a nation’s spirits and cited the precedent of founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.“The world respects that individual or the country that has self-respect,” he opined.The prime minister reiterated that Pakistan wanted equal ties with all the countries.“But as a prime minister of country with 220 million population, it is his first and foremost duty to protect their rights and interests of the country.

I will not allow any policy which can inflict any harm to the motherland. I will not compromise upon the national interests just for seeking the pleasure of any country,” he stressed.The prime minister referred to his US visit, where he stayed in a room of Pakistan Embassy Taking pride in shalwar kameez, the prime minister said that he did not spend 1.2 or 1.4 million dollars as wasted by Zardari and Nawaz Sharif during their visits.

The prime minister also justified his criticism of the EU ambassadors’ open letter over Russian-Ukraine conflict, which he maintained was against all diplomatic protocols.“Whether they had addressed such a letter to India. We are no slave to anyone,” he added.Expressing his wonder, the prime minister said his opponents, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto issued statements against him for raising his voice against such incident.

He said that he knew the West and their mindset very well as they looked down upon those who had ‘polished their shoes’ or those who were ready to serve them for petty gains.On the contrary, they respected those who stood for the self-esteem of their nations and countries. They had no respect for those who had stashed away their ill-gotten pelf abroad, he added.

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, Vice Chairman PTI and Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, PTI top leadership including Asad Umar, Shafqat Mahmood, Dr Shahbaz Gill, Shaukat Bhatti, MNA, and other leadership was also present.Earlier, the prime minister also inaugurated different educational, health and road infrastructure projects.The prime minister expressed the confidence that Pakistan would soon become a great country and would become a precedent in the world by following the principles of the Riasat e Madina.

Citing the recent Indian missile firing, he said Pakistan adopted a prudent approach. “Pakistan is a country that can defend itself. Pakistan is moving on the right path and its economy is set on the right course,” he added.About Opposition parties, move for the no-confidence motion, the prime minister said that all thieves had gathered to pull down the government. They were out to bribe away people and purchase their loyalties with the looted money,, he said, adding but instead, ‘the three mice that are out to prey, will soon fall a prey to their moves.’The prime minister said during previous governments of PPP and PML-N, about 400 drone attacks were recorded inside Pakistan’s territory.

Pakistan had been fighting their war, but neither Zardari nor Sharif had the courage to condemn such blatant violations of the international laws and human rights, he regretted.On the contrary, the prime minister said, he had always opposed those attacks, staged sit-ins, and gave statements in the United States and the United Kingdom, calling these attacks a grave violation of basic human rights and global principles.Sharing one such experience, he told a group of European representatives, whether they would allow use of drone against a terrorist and criminal sitting in London who had killed scores of people in Karachi.