Musical chairs: Imran Khan dismisses PTI leavers as opportunists

Five central Punjab politicians join Tehreek-i-Insaf.

LAHORE:

The people leaving the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) are opportunists while those who remain are committed to changing the country into an Islamic welfare state, said party chief Imran Khan at his house here on Wednesday.

Khan was speaking at a press conference arranged to welcome new politicians to the party, but was also quizzed by journalists about the resignation from the PTI of Dr Shireen Mazari, who had been with the party since November 2008.

The PTI chief said that he expected more politicians to join the party over the next three to four months and was confident that it would win the next general elections. He said that the PTI was competing with the media cells of the Punjab government and the federal government, which were conspiring against the PTI. He said the politicians who had quit the party would try to rejoin after the elections.

Former PML-N MNA and former Nankana Sahib nazim Jaleel Ahmed Sharaqpuri, former federal minister and PPP founding member Ahsanul Haq from Sargodha, former PPP ticket holder Hafiz Abdul Rehman Saahi from Sargodha, former tehsil nazim and JI member Chaudhry Waheeduddin from Renala Khurd, and former nazim Sabir Hussain Bhatti from Farooqabad, joined the PTI on Wednesday.

Welcoming the newcomers, Khan said that the PTI’s main aim was to make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state and to provide social justice.

Drones don’t work

The PTI chief said that the party had stood against drone strikes in Pakistan from the beginning and new research from Stanford University in California showed that 90 per cent of the victims of drone strikes in Pakistan were innocent citizens.

He said that the party had long demanded that the government release the names of those killed in drone strikes, but the government was acting “hand in glove with America”.

He said the drone attacks were counter productive as they instigated terrorism and sectarianism.

Khan urged the government to issue visas to all civil activists and journalists who wished to participate in the PTI’s “peace march” in Waziristan.

About President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to the United Nations, Khan said that the president should also think about addressing the nation to talk about the lack of security and disasters like floods. “America and Hillary cannot rescue Zardari from the present crisis of governance,” he said.

He said Pakistani farmers were becoming more and more desperate as the cost of inputs like electricity and diesel were rising. He said that the rising prices could compel the farmers to start a civil disobedience movement and they would not pay their utility bills. He said that the government had failed to tax the rich, including parliamentarians.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.