PTI warns of public protests in support of JIT, SC

Imran asks top court to direct PM to resign till probe ends

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that his party would take to streets in support of the Supreme Court if the ruling party resorted to ‘any unfair means’ against the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the alleged offshore assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

Imran argued that the JIT ‘is an extension of the apex court’. He spoke at length about the ‘intensified verbal accusations’ by government representatives against the JIT members and requested the Supreme Court to direct the PM to resign until the completion of the investigation.

Addressing a press conference outside his Bani Gala residence, the PTI chief reposed full confidence in the apex court and the JIT, saying he had given a call for his party activists to be ready for public protests to support the Supreme Court if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opted to physically attack state institutions.

“We supported judiciary when [former military dictator Pervez] Mushrraf ousted former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and will do it again, if need be,” he said.



“PML-N’s efforts to intimidate and influence JIT members have so far gone to waste. Now, they are afraid … as investigations progress. A growing and deeply ingrained fear is reflecting in PML-N ranks that the JIT probe into the Panama case is not going according to their expectations,” he said, adding that gauging the situation, the ruling party was building momentum against the JIT in particular and the Supreme Court in general.

“Today, the whole nation, [but] not the rulers, is ready to accept the outcome of JIT’s investigations,” Imran said in response to a statement of Rana Sanaullah in which he contended that the people of Pakistan would not accept JIT findings.

He said that state institutions were being pressed and JIT members had already told the SC that their investigations were being obstructed.

“The situation is troubling for the Sharifs … their old tactic to pressurise individuals has not worked this time. Now, the only option is to politicise, discredit and attack the JIT and the SC itself,” he observed.



The PTI chief alleged that the PML-N was preparing to create chaos to avoid accountability. “They always skipped accountability and they are trying the same now. But I want to tell them such tactics will no more work and the ruling family will be held accountable for the first time in the country’s history,” he said.

He said recent statements by Rana Sanaullah, Nehal Hashmi and Tariq Kirmani clearly showed what the PML-N was trying to do.

Responding to a question about a PML-N worker’s statement that he would move the court for setting up a JIT to probe Imran’s assets, he said the court already had the entire money trail of his personal financial assets.

“I will become a dangerous man for Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N and they should rightly be scared of me,” he said.



Criticising the government for victimising its political opponents, Imran condemned “the PML-N-devised attack on Shaikh Rasheed and the arrest of MNA Jamshed Dasti”.

Meanwhile, former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry wrote separate letters to the Supreme Court registrar and the secretary interior to provide sufficient security to JIT members and SC judges in the backdrop of recent statement by various PML-N leaders.