South Punjab tour: Nawaz Sharif copying PTI’s ideas, says Imran Khan

PTI chief says PPP will not follow through on Seraiki province promise.

VEHARI:

Nawaz Sharif is copying the Tehreek-i-Insaf’s rhetoric about building a progressive Pakistan as a welfare state, just like he is copying President Asif Ali Zardari’s corruption methods, said PTI chief Imran Khan on Monday.

Talking to reporters here after paying his condolences to PTI leader Mumtaz Khan Khich over the death of PPP MPA Sardar Khan Khichi, Imran Khan said that Nawaz Sharif and Zardari were allies in a quest to take turns in power so they could keep making dirty money.

He said Sharif spoke about reconstructing Pakistan, but it would be better if he first spared Punjab from devastation and destruction, as he actually had a government there. He said Sharif should not celebrate his by-election victory too much.

“I would like to remind him that Pervez Musharaf also won by-elections, but that was the only victory he got,” he said. The same thing would happen to the PML-N, he said.

The PTI chief said that the PML-N would not be able to “buy” the votes of Pakistan’s youngsters by giving away laptops, tractors and yellow cabs. He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was an actor and should be in dramas or movies. He said that the chief minister had devastated the agricultural sector of south Punjab and treated the region “like a step-child”.

Turning to other PTI opponents, he said that if Altaf Hussain really believed that the people of Pakistan were with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), he would have no objection to the fresh delimitation of electoral constituencies. Hussain’s objections showed “there is definitely some problem”, he said.

He said Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Fazlur Rehman had been running an “Islam shop” but it was time to close the shop. He said that the PPP was using the murder of Benazir Bhutto as a political card. He said that they were also using the call for a Seraiki province as a political card, though it was clear that they would never actually follow through on their promises.

He said that the PTI was the only party to conduct free and fair internal elections at which everyone had been given a chance to participate. He said that the PTI planned to strengthen the federation, while all other parties sought only to strengthen a particular province.

“You can see how all the other parties fear the PTI. We have not even taken part in elections but they are still frightened,” he said.

Imran Khan is to visit more than 200 sub districts, towns and rural areas in 16 south Punjab districts as part of the PTI’s election campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.