-Says nobody can defeat you if you don’t give up
-Highlights political struggles, ambitions
-Claims corruption is the sole reason for nation’s destruction
-Reaffirms vow to curb corruption from the roots
By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that a nation cannot be destroyed with a dearth of resources, or even if you flatten them with bombs and tear them apart with wars, but it is destroyed if corruption takes roots in it.
In his address to the nation Sunday on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the premier classified corruption in two categories: one of which he said is at the grassroots committed by clerical staff at public offices and patwaris, the other, he said, was committed at the top level by the ministers and even the prime ministers themselves.
It is the latter form of corruption that really drowns the nations as the entire country would succumb to heaps of debts acquired by those in power, the PM said.
He established his argument by giving examples of all the third-world’s developing nations that they too were marred by the same menace of corruption by their ruling class and the same was the case with Pakistan, which prompted him to start a political party based on this one cornerstone to end corruption from the ruling class.
We named our party after justice, the PM said. “When there is justice, there cannot be any instance of corruption.”
“Justice means the supremacy of law, meaning the weak and the mighty are equal before the law.”
He said that this was the only motivation behind the endeavour he had set out on 25 years ago today, adding that to a man like him who already had everything, including fame and money, even before choosing to be in politics, seeking justice was the goal, unlike others who had nothing before sliding into politics.
“The first 15 years of this struggle were the most gruelling and many of our partners and friends cut off from us saying they were being ridiculed due to the far-fetched ideas proposed by the party that had secured no seat,” he said.
In the first election we fielded our people we won no seats but “those who do not give up hope, no one can really defeat them”, the PM noted. On the other hand, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Sunday that Prime Minister Imran Khan was striving for establishment of a modern Islamic welfare state as envisioned by Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
In a video statement marking the foundation day anniversary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, he said only PM Imran Khan could transform Pakistan following the vision of poet philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal and founding father Quaid-e-Azam M.A. Jinnah.
He said that Imran Khan founded the PTI 25 years ago on this day, a time when Pakistan’s political scene was dominated by two parties.
Chaudhry Fawad said that Imran Khan had started his struggle against the two-party system, and at that time very few people had any hope that he would be able to defeat them. He said that Imran Khan based his politics on the slogan of change and promised a “Naya Pakistan.”
The minister added that this slogan meant to lay the foundation of a state in Pakistan in which the powerful and the weak would be treated equally by the law. He said if Imran Khan had wanted, he could have become Prime Minister by compromising with Pervez Musharraf but he never compromised on principles. Information minister said that Lahore meeting in 2011 proved to be a turning point for PTI and Imran Khan became the most popular political leader in the country.
He said even today, PTI is the largest party of middle class and lower middle class.
He said that poor people expect that if anyone can give justice in Pakistan, it is only PTI-led government headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
