Imran says PTI to march with or without opposition

Says the prime minister has hired JUI-F chief to hide his corruption

MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  (PTI) chief Imran Khan has said his party will continue to ‘expose’ the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s alleged corruption even if other opposition parties do not support its movement against graft.

“The PTI will continue to expose Nawaz Sharif whether other political parties support our movement against corruption or not,” Imran Khan said, while addressing a public rally in the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) where the general elections are to be held next month.

Imran said Nawaz Sharif had no right to remain the prime minister after emergence of the Panama Papers, which on April 3 revealed that the premier’s three children had offshore companies in an international tax haven.



“You have no moral right to rule the country and we demand your resignation,” he said.



The PTI chief said he will raise the alleged corruption of the premier at every forum both in and outside the country, adding that ultimately Nawaz Sharif will have to face accountability.

Imran said he had evidence that the PM lied to the nation and transferred money to foreign countries for business interest. “Leaders do not make factories. They put their nation on the road of prosperity as the leaders of Singapore and Malaysia did for their countries.”

He said the premier’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, had claimed last year that they had no assets in any foreign country. “But now she owns an offshore company. I want to tell Sharif family that Allah is the best judge who exposed you before the whole world through Panama Papers,” he said.

Grilling the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he said the prime minister had ‘hired’ his services to ‘hide’ his corruption. “The JUI-F chief is on the mission to jack up his rate for protecting Nawaz Sharif’s corruption,” he said.



Imran said PTI’s May 20 showdown in Faisalabad will break all records. However, he warned that if anyone dared to harass women during the public gathering then he would be thrashed by Insaf Tigers Force, which he said has been specially created for the protection of women who come to the PTI rallies.

During the PTI’s previous two rallies in Islamabad and Lahore, a number of cases of harassment against women were reported. The PTI had later claimed that the incidents were part of a conspiracy hatched by the ruling party to sabotage the PTI’s movement for accountability of the prime minister.

During his speech, Imran also slammed the Indian government for its massive human rights violations in Indian administered Kashmir. He said after becoming the prime minister, he would talk up the issue rather than engaging in talks with the neighbour to secure his ‘business interests’.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2016.