News
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Imran vows huge ‘tsunami’ if caretaker PM not neutral
* PTI chief says federal, Punjab govts trying to purchase votes by dolling out heavy funds to lawmakers, candidates* CJP should take suo motu notice of killing of NAB officer
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday said that his party had yet not been consulted for the nomination of a neutral caretaker prime minister and vowed a huge tsunami if a neutral caretaker prime minister was not appointed.
Addressing journalists, Imran Khan said that the federal and Punjab governments were trying to purchase votes by dolling out heavy funds in the name of development funds to their lawmakers and even candidates. He warned that if the election commission did not intervene, such a practice may trigger a major political disaster. “The PTI will take out a huge tsunami march if a neutral umpire (caretaker prime minister) is not appointed. We will protest to save the democratic process from a total disaster,” he maintained.
Referring to the long march taken out by the Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran chief Tahirul Qadri, Imran said it was the first step towards a true change through ballot and general elections would prove that a major change is coming in Pakistan. “The forces of status quo claim that the long march has failed. Actually this was the first step towards success as thousands of people came out on roads to bring about a change. Over 90 percent of people want a change in Pakistan as reflected by a recent poll conducted by a US firm,” he added.
Asked whether the PTI would go for an election alliance with Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Imran said PAT had yet to decide whether or not it would take part in elections. “We will decide over the matter once elections are announced,” he added. Referring to the assassination of Kamran Faisal, a NAB official probing the rental power project case, the PTI chief called upon Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take suo motu notice and get the matter investigated under the apex court’s supervision.
“Since he was investigating in a case in which prime minister was also involved, this matter should be thoroughly probed into,” he added. He said Kamran was killed to send a strong message to other officials investigating the sensitive RPPs case. Terming the matter similar to that of slain TV journalist Wali Khan Babar, Imran said that in Babar’s case, all the six witnesses had been killed one by one with no headway in the case as yet. He asserted that since Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was involved in the RPPs case, a fair trial of the case was next to impossible by the team constituted by the government.
Imran said the demands of the TMQ were similar to those of the PTI; however, the approach to get the issues resolved was different, as the PTI wanted a change through the ballot while the TMQ opted to stage a long march. Imran Khan reiterated his demand that the President Asif Ali Zardari should resign immediately, as under him free, fair and transparent election was almost impossible. However, he said that when the PTI tried to build pressure for his removal, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) jumped into the fray to rescue Zardari.
“The PML-N once again has come to rescue the president. When the people were staging a sit-in in front of the Parliament House, Nawaz Sharif gathered forces of status quo to counter the people’s march and said that if Zardari resigned, the PPP would elect a new president”. “Since the PTI has gathered a huge following among the public, the PPP and PML-N, and other forces of status quo have joined hands to keep status quo intact. But now the people of Pakistan would foil all conspiracies being hatched against them,” he maintained.
He said the upcoming election would bring a revolutionary change in the county, as the people had fed up of the status quo parties and the practical demonstration could be witnessed in the recent long march led by Tahirul Qadri. He said the PTI did not participate in the long march because the party always resisted the unconstitutional move, vowing that change was in the offing and it would be brought through the force of ballot.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk