Imran demands free and fair snap polls

Asserts the establishment ‘needs to step back’

RAWALPINDI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has called for immediate free and fair elections, stating that he is ready to go on a hunger strike but is waiting for some decisions to pan out.

He asserted that the current government has dashed the hopes of Pakistanis and that for transparent elections, the establishment needs to step back. “Saving Pakistan requires no other solution but transparent elections.”

During an informal conversation with journalists in the jail courtroom following a hearing in the £190 million reference case, the PTI founder said that Pakistan’s debt was Rs2.8 trillion in 2021 and has now reached Rs8 to Rs9 trillion in just four years.

He highlighted that a poor person’s electricity bill, which used to be Rs2,000, has now ballooned to Rs10,000. He criticised the elite class for keeping their money stashed abroad and claimed that no one trusts the current government anymore.

He reiterated that the recent general elections were a sham.

He expressed frustration that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa was sending the party to the election commission for justice, despite everyone knowing that the electoral body conducted fraudulent elections.

He also criticised CJP Isa for questioning why intra-party elections were not held, pointing out that the entire party was underground.

The former prime minister questioned why the party’s human rights grievances and February 8 petitions were not being heard in the Supreme Court.