By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that he will address public rally scheduled for today at Minar-e-Pakistan despite threat warnings issues by the district administration to him.
To a question about security threats to PTI’s Lahore rally Thursday, Imran Khan said that he will definitely come to the rally. “It is a special place because Pakistan resolution was tabled there … Indian Muslims had decided that they wanted separate land … we’re also launching our campaign there … I believe we will have record number of people there.”
Imran Khan said under his rule, Pakistan had record numbers of dollar inflow, adding that in future his government will try never to go to IMF.
He said that national curriculum was an important initiative and so was Rehmatul lil Allameen Authority. “Whatever they do they will not be able to remain in power for long and we will expand our initiatives once we’re back in power.”
He said that he did not expect such huge crowds would come out in his support after his government was ousted earlier this month. “I had expected just five per cent of what actually came out. When I saw people I was so happy because I saw a nation emerging … for the first time I saw where we should have been 75 years ago,” he added.
About protests held abroad in favour of PTI, he said that the protest demonstrationswere unprecedented. “They (the protests) prove that people do not accept the conspiracy,” he added.
Replying to a question regarding the role of state institutions in the upcoming elections, the deposed premier said “there are also humans [in institutions] if one or two individuals do something wrong, the entire institution is not responsible for their act,” he added. Talking about the chief election commissioner, he said that all his judgements were “anti-PTI”.
“The day [foreign funding] cases of all three parties are heard simultaneously, it will be clear that only PTI has a proper system of funding,” he added.
Imran Khan said that if former prime minister Nawaz Sharif comes back and gets another ‘NRO’, he will not accept it and bring people out on streets.
“It will discredit judicial system as no one would believe in it… everyone will say the wealthy can get away with anything in Pakistan,” he added.
He said that in third world countries, they only catch small thieves and not the big ones but in the first world, there is no such thing. “You cannot imagine prime ministers making factories there… rule of law is the biggest issue in Pakistan,” he added.
Imran Khan said that there are big mafias in Pakistan and his government was bringing them under the rule of law.
To a question about dissenting PTI members, Imran Khan said that they thought when PTI would come into power, the government will make their businesses grow [in a wrongful way] but we did not.
“That’s why we faced issues because we stopped them. If sugar prices suddenly increased by Rs26 per kilo then we tried to stop it … these people have exposed themselves,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Additional Deputy Commissioner Lahore Atiyab Sultan on Wednesday wrote to PTI leaders recommending that former prime minister Imran Khan address the party’s Lahore rally, scheduled for Thursday, virtually in light of “severe threat alerts”.
