Will fight 'thieves' till the last ball, says defiant Imran

I will never let them get away with your Rs1,100 billion, says former premier at Faisalabad rally

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday vowed to fight the "thieves" – a term he has coined for the members of the incumbent government – till the last ball.

"I will never let them get away with your Rs1,100 billion," he said while addressing a rally in Faisalabad in connection with Sunday's by-polls on 20 constituencies of Punjab Assembly.

Imran Khan said that those who imposed "criminals" via a foreign conspiracy, the nation will never forgive them. "You are my team and I am your captain… and this captain knows how to compete."

He claimed that Sharifs and Zardaris have never done anything with honesty, alleging that his party’s opponents cannot win without massive rigging.

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The PTI chairman said that after 9/11, our ruler of that time got a call from the US and we entered a foreign war. “Pakistan sacrificed a lot for the US war. We lost 80,000 Pakistanis and even today army soldiers giving sacrifices because of that war. When democracy was restored, people thought it will talk about the people but the US conducted 400 drone attacks during Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari's tenures.”

He said that he does not want enmity with anyone but he will also never be a slave to anyone. "US doesn't like leaders who take a stand… it likes cherry blossom leaders like Shehbaz Sharif."

For the last 32 years, the former PM said, PML-N and PPP were ruling Pakistan. "Whenever they come [to power] they beg. They are shameless people. If they had any honour, they would've returned the money they had looted from this country rather than begging," he added.

Urging people to vote, he hoped that PTI will win in all 20 constituencies and will give "lotas a beating".

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"You all have to come out and protect all polling stations because opponents cannot win without rigging," he added.

Noting that the government will not be able to brought down the prices of petrol and diesel further, he said that PM Shehbaz first raised the price of diesel by Rs130 and then brought it down by Rs40 per litre.

"Price of petrol should have been reduced to Rs150 and diesel to Rs144 but they are following orders of IMF only. IMF also pushed us to raise prices but we did not," he added.

Imran said that Nawaz Sharif's entire family lives abroad but only "Radio Akhashwani" is in Pakistan, referring to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz.

"Maryam owns four expensive apartments in London. Our justice system can only catch small criminals but not big ones."

Talking about Sri Lanka, he said that like Pakistan, it too was being ruled by a single family which became rich while the country got poorer and subsequently, it defaulted.

Talking about the achievements of his government, the former premier said that the PTI government saw record exports. "We had record textile exports. There was a shortage of labourers in Faisalabad as a result. We gave health cards in Punjab for the first time in the history of Pakistan. Ehsaas Programme was taking the country towards a welfare state. We gave interest-free loans to people," he further said.