PTI chief launches broadside against ‘Raiwand’ consensus

PTI believes that only fair elections could bring a change in the country, says Imran Khan.

LAHORE:

A day after the country’s opposition announced their support for the government against any ‘undemocratic process’, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief lashed out at all political parties saying that they had united to resist a positive change in the country.

In a press release issued on Thursday, Imran Khan said that Dr Tahirul Qadri’s long march had established that people wanted to bring change in the country.

However, he added that although most of Minhajul Quran International’s demands matched those of the PTI, the parties differed over the methods of implementation.

“The PTI believes that only fair elections could bring a change in the country,” he said.

Defending his party’s decision not to attend the long march, Khan said that his party had reached a unanimous decision after thorough brainstorming.

“We believe that any untoward incident in the rally might lead to the elections being postponed which would be a hindrance in the democratic process,” Imran noted in the statement issued before the government-MQI agreement.



Imran also repeated the PTI demand asking President Asif Ali Zardari to step down from his post.

Accusing the federal and Punjab government of violating the law, the PTI chief alleged that both the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakisan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were spending tax money on their election campaigns.

“Programmes like the Benazir Income Support, the laptop scheme, yellow cab and tractors scheme are all part of pre-poll rigging and the election commission has failed to put an end to it,” Imran said, adding that though the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim was a person of integrity, people under him were corrupt and worked for various political parties.

The PTI chief added that his party would not let the ruling parties use taxpayers’ money in rigging the elections. He said that his party had time and again stated that both the PPP and the PML-N were assisting each other in corruption and had also provided proof of the by-election being rigged.

Reiterating his party’s stance, Imran added that if the election commission failed to put in place the electoral reforms PTI would not hesitate in launching a march.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2013.