‘PTI is real resistance against status quo’

PTI should capitalise on the support of the people and work towards enhancing its vote bank, says Hashmi

MULTAN:

Former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf president Javed Hashmi said on Friday that he wanted to help strengthen the PTI because it was the “true face of resistance against the status quo.”

He was talking to newsmen at his residence.

Hashmi said he had never attempted to weaken the PTI.

He said the PTI should capitalise on the support of the people and work towards enhancing its vote bank.

“I will support the PTI because the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has turned a deaf ear to the problems of the people and has taken no tangible steps to address the rigging allegations,” he said.

He said the PTI was a new party but it did not exist in a vacuum.

He said the party should learn from its mistakes and participate in the evolution of “a healthy democracy” in Pakistan.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised to resign if the election in his constituency was proved to have been rigged. He said enemies of democracy and those who wanted to promote dictatorship in the country had stopped him from resigning.

He said that many PTI lawmakers did not wish to resign. He said PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak had both opposed resignations because they did not want to lose their grip on power.

He said Khan’s demand of a judicial investigation to probe election rigging was justified.

Commenting on a rumours of a forward bloc in the PTI, he said the party was divided over the issue of resignations.

He said Khan should be wary of such problems as he would not want the PTI to spilt into small groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2014.