Reason for agitation: Imran afraid masses won’t vote for him, says Rashid

Says those who fear defeat in the coming polls are talking about sit-ins.

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid on Thursday said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan is threatening to hold street protests because he knows the masses will not vote for his party in the coming elections.

"Those who fear defeat in the coming elections are talking about street agitation and sit-ins," he told reporters at a function arranged in honour of children suffering from thalassemia.

Rashid said Imran claimed in the past that the entire country would be paralysed on his strike call, but no city, not even a single street was paralysed. “Imran had asked the nation neither to pay utility bills nor send remittances through the banks, but nobody paid any heed to his call. No city of the country will be paralysed on Imran's call, as the people themselves elected PML-N in the 2013 general elections and it has been serving them."

Those demanding accountability have their own offshore companies, Rashid said, adding that Imran whitened black money in 2002 while there was no mention of Nawaz Sharif in Panama papers. He said Imran on the one hand expected Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to join his street protests and on the other hand the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government had given a Rs300 million grant to a seminary reportedly linked with the killers of Benazir Bhutto.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2016.