Imran vows to collect Rs800bn tax if elected to centre

BANNU: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, vowing to collect Rs800 billion in taxes if elected into power in the 2018 elections, on Wednesday said the country was facing financial losses due to lack of national leadership.

Speaking to University of Science and Technology students in Bannu, he said his government would prioritise education that “turns countries into superpowers”.

Khan said competent leadership in the country would only emerge by providing quality higher education to the younger generation.



“Pakistan stands at number two in holding most numbers of youth and they are our real strength…the country will become sovereign through investment in the youth,” he said.

“The leadership crisis has put us back behind all South Asian nations…our rulers are bowing before others by forgetting our glorious history of conquering other nations,” said the PTI chief.

“Our forefathers defeated infidels despite being fewer in numbers…and today [deposed prime minister] Nawaz Sharif speaks with [former US president Barrack] Obama by taking cues from written notes.”

The PTI chairman was delivering a lecture on the topic of “Leadership, Governance, and Sport”. He also inaugurated a plantation drive and an academic block at the university on the occasion.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani and Vice-Chancellor Bannu University Professor Syed Abid Ali Shah also spoke.

K-P Transport Minister Malik Shah Muhammad Khan, former MNA Malik Nasir Khan, Malik Adnan Khan, district president PTI Matiullah Khan, opposition leader at district council Malik Gulbaz Khan and Malik Zafar Hayat Khan among other party office-bearers and university officials were also present on the occasion.

“Without prevalence of justice, protection of masses and backing the vulnerable segment of the society, the country cannot progress,” said the PTI chief, adding that politics based on ethnicity had also played its role in holding the nation back.



The K-P government was to receive Rs110 billion from the federal government, but, it was yet to receive Rs35 billion for hospitals, educational institutions and reforms in different departments, Khan regretted.

Before 2013, 700 police officials had been killed in terrorist attacks, but everybody has seen the bravery of K-P police in the attack on the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), he said, adding that people’s confidence had restored in the law enforcement forces.