Khan to Assange: Politicians realise vote bank belongs to me now

Imran Khan speaks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 'The World Tomorrow'.

Politicians have realised that the vote bank belongs to me now and that is why they are joining my party, says Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. Speaking during his interview for Julian Assange’s talk show “The World Tomorrow”, Khan explained the recent surge in his popularity in Pakistan.

Acknowledging that things changed drastically for PTI after two big rallies in Lahore and Karachi, Khan however linked his rise to the exposure given to him by the burgeoning Pakistani electronic media during Pervez Musharraf’s tenure especially during the emergency.

Khan said that since he was at the forefront during the Lawyers’ Movement in 2007, “my party started taking off.”

He also mentioned that he had boycotted the elections held under Musharraf, because he believed they were rigged by the “Americans” and were meant to bring the corrupt politicians back in power. “[The elections are] going to be a disaster for the people of Pakistan,” Khan had said then.

The PTI chief said that his graph started to go up also because people realised I was right about boycotting the last elections.

Alleging that all other political parties are conspiring against PTI, Khan said even though these parties criticise each other in public, “they have this understanding now that, whatever happens, my party should stay out.”

Stating that his opponents are scared by his growing popularity, Khan said “they’re petrified because the last time in Pakistan we saw rallies as big as the two I took out, one in Lahore and one in Karachi, was 40 years ago by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

“He swept the election, he just swept… and he was an underdog and all the status quo parties were blown away,” he added.

Commenting on the Osama bin Laden raid in 2011, the PTI chief said the unilateral action by the US forces created “a very strong reaction born out of a feeling of humiliation.” He further said that Pakistan's ally did not trust us and instead came and killed someone on our own soil.

Bashing the US drone strike policy as always, Khan said the attacks carried out by the unmanned predators violate human rights.

“Which law allows you to be a judge, jury and executioner? And this on information which could be flawed? They have these spies roaming around there, who then just send them a message that ‘look, here are some militants’ – bear in mind that every man in the tribal area is armed. It’s the most unique place on Earth, where every man is a warrior, carries a gun and this is for time immemorial. People have always carried weapons,” Khan said.