Imran vows to make Nawaz accountable

Says PM failed to defend his family during his recent parliamentary speech

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan pledged on Friday that his party in collaboration with other opposition groups would do its ‘utmost’ to wipe out graft from the country and bring Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to justice for his alleged ‘misdeeds, including plundering public funds and making offshore companies’.

“We will not let Nawaz Sharif go unaccountable, even if an opposition party backs out from this national agenda,” he told participants at a massive rally in Dhobi Ghat ground in Faisalabad city.



During his 40-minute speech, Imran severely criticised the prime minister’s style of governance as he offered himself and his family members for “fair, impartial accountability”.

Imran said: “If Nawaz Sharif was made the prime minister of the United Kingdom for 10 years, he would make the UK bankrupt; but if PTI is given the chance to rule Pakistan for the same period, it will change the destiny of the nation and make Pakistan a leading country”.

Counting corruption as a major impediment to economic prosperity, he pointed out that he had been fighting against this scourge for the last two decades.

Imran said the Panama Papers were a godsend to end corruption from the country. “And we will not miss this golden opportunity to make Pakistan one of the most prosperous countries in the world as was dreamed by its founders,” he said.

Referring to the prime minister’s recent parliamentary speech, he said he felt ashamed by Nawaz, who seemed under tremendous pressure and disturbed while trying to defend his family over Panama Papers.



“It was a pity that a man who has remained in power once as a chief minister and thrice as a prime minister was making speech in the parliament from a prepared draft while reading in an utterly stressed manner,” Imran said.

The PTI chief claimed that the PM failed to defend himself and his family from the disclosure of the Panama leaks. He also showed the audience clips from the interviews of Nawaz Sharif’s sons, daughter, and the interior minister in connection with offshore businesses to show contradiction in statements.

“There are reports that names of the prime minister and his associates are going to surface now in connection with offshore companies in Singapore and other countries,” he claimed.

Paying rich tributes to the nation, Imran said Pakistan is amongst top four countries of the world which generously contribute to charity. “Had these people confidence that their taxes would be spent transparently, they would not hesitate to pay their taxes,” he said.

Imran Khan told the crowd that Pakistanis were paying Rs.3.5 billion every year to the Shaukat Khanum Hospital Lahore while they had contributed Rs.4 billion for Shaukat Khanum Hospital Peshawar, which, according to him, reflected spirit of the nation for helping the welfare oriented projects.



“It is a wrong perception that Pakistanis are not paying taxes; rather the ordinary people are paying heavy indirect taxations like 17 per cent GST on every item, 98 per cent on diesel, 50 per cent on petrol, 43 per cent on cell phones and income tax on electricity,” he said.

He said during the past 10 years, Pakistan had been burdened with Rs5,000 billion of debt while in the previous 50 years, the foreign loans were just Rs5,000 billion.

Extraordinary arrangements were made for guarding and protecting PTI’s female supporters and activists in the backdrop of the recent indecent incidents in Islamabad and Lahore public meetings.

Special shuttering was erected around the female stage, which was further supported and strengthened by barbered wire. A strong contingent of more than 150 female PTI volunteers was deployed in the female enclosure.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2016.