Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday categorically said he will not be blackmailed by threats of million marches and sit-ins by the opposition leaders who face accountability for looting billions of rupees of the public money.
“Imran Khan will not be blackmailed … I have come into power only with a motive to hold the corrupt accountable,” he said while addressing a huge public gathering here. He referred to the April 4 speeches of Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Naudero and offered the PPP leaders with a container and even food if they want to stage a sit-in in Islamabad. He, however, challenged them to hold even a week-long sit-in in the federal capital as against the PTI’s four-and-a-half month sit-in, adding that sit-ins only succeed when the leaders raise the issues of masses and share their grievances. He said the people who have become leaders by showing a piece of paper [death will] are not the true leaders. “Leaders emerge through struggle and political hardships,” he added.
The prime minister said Maulana Fazlur Rehman who was badly defeated in the last general election is also talking of a ‘million march’. Terming the Maulana as 12th player, he said, “It is like a whining boy [in the game of cricket] who continues with fielding the whole day, then gets out on the very first ball at crease, and later starts crying foul to disturb the whole match.” “He (Maulana Fazlur Rehman) is the 12th player and wants to push the government down. You will not get the turn,” he remarked.
“Zardari Sahib! This government is not going. You are going to jail,” the prime minister further said, and regretted that the opposition parties (PML-N and PPP) who completed their five-year terms each during the past 10 years are raising questions about the performance of PTI government over the last seven months. He criticized the PPP leaders for questioning PTI about its performance of seven months in power from the very first week. He referred to a joint investigation team report and said these people laundered public money worth Rs 100 billion abroad through fake accounts. “They are telling us to push the government down and pressurizing us so as to get an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance),” the prime minister said, and added that the people like Ishaq Dar, an absconder, are telling the government how to improve economy.
Imran says government isn’t going anywhere but Zardari is going to jail
He also mentioned the sons of Nawaz Sharif residing in London and said, “One of his son is living in a house worth Rs 6 billion.” Similarly, he said, a son and son-in-law of Shehbaz Sharif have gone to London. “If you have not done anything wrong, why you have run out of the country,” he asked.
Imran Khan said when called by the court, he presented his 40-year record before it and did not make any hue and cry about democracy getting in danger. “When these people are questioned, democracy comes under threat,” he said, and made it clear that those involved in loot and plundering of public money will have to be answerable before the courts as well as before the nation. “If you have to avoid going to jails, you will have to give back the public money, which was to be used on health, education and poverty elimination,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, wearing a tribal turban, lauded the patriotism and bravery of the tribal people, who he said always stood with the government and country’s armed forces in the hour of need. He said the people of tribal areas fought alongside the armed forces during the war with India in 1948, when the people of Kashmir were being subjugated to tyranny by the Indian forces, as well as in the 1965 war.
The prime minister, who has been a critic of sending army in tribal areas on the desire of the United States, said the people of tribal areas had to face many hardships during the war against terrorism including displacement, loss of business and agriculture, destruction of houses and so on. He assured the tribal people that his government will make every effort to compensate their losses by creating job opportunities for youth and offering them interest-free loans for establishing or reviving their businesses.
The prime minister said he has directed the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to make necessary arrangements for 24-hour opening of Torkhum Border so as to promote unhindered trade in the area. He announced the construction of Jabba and Bara dams in district Khyber, which will ensure provision of potable water to one million people and irrigate 17,000 hectares of land in the area. He also announced construction of Bara bypass to ease the flow of traffic in the area.
The prime minister referred to the unprecedented economic challenges facing the country and said those comparing the PTI government with the PML-N and PPP should better compare the situation after the PTI completed its five-year term. The prime minister said the PPP and PML-N took the country’s debt to Rs 30,000 billion in 10 years of their rule from Rs 6,000 billion and Rs 15,000 billion in 2008 and 2013 respectively. He said the PTI government is paying Rs 6.5 billion per day in debt-servicing for the huge loans taken by the PPP and PML-N governments.
Giving an overview of the country’s economic condition, the prime minister said Pakistan, which collects Rs 4,500 billion per annum in revenue, has to spend Rs 2,000 billion for debt repayment. He, however, expressed his confidence that with the present government taking effective cost-cutting measures and attracting foreign investment, the country will come out of this hard phase within the next few months.