Imran urges railways minister to resign

PTI leader to provide allowance to victims’ families

LODHRAN: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan has called for the resignation of Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique over an accident involving a passenger train and a motorised three-wheeler in Lodhran that left eight people dead.

Eight students among nine dead as train crashes into rickshaw in Lodhran

The minister should step down so that an independent inquiry can be carried out into the tragic collision, the PTI chief said. “The accident occurred due to the negligence of the railways and the resignation of Saad Rafique is a prerequisite for a transparent inquiry,” he told reporters at Tareen House.

Criticising the top accountability watchdog, Imran said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had failed to investigate the alleged money laundering by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on behalf of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the PML-N’s second tenure.

Imran also spoke with reference to the ongoing Panamagate trial, and claimed that the PM’s daughter Maryam Nawaz was the ‘front man’ of the prime minister as far as ownership of the ruling Sharif family’s London flats was concerned.  “In this regard [new] documentary evidence against the prime minister has been submitted in the court,” he said.



The PTI chief said his party had started preparations for the general election in the shape of public campaigns. “After resolution of Panamagate case, we will give party tickets to candidates,” he said, adding that the elections would be held in the ongoing year and not in 2018.

Earlier, Imran and his senior party colleague Jahangir Tareen visited Chak Doranwala to express condolences to the families of the schoolchildren who had died in Friday’s train crash.

The leaders offered Fateha for the departed souls and announced that Tareen would provide an allowance to the families who lost their children in the accident.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2017.