Upcoming election: PTI to end ‘thana-kutchery’ culture, says Imran Khan

Says revival of local govt system tops his party’s priority list.

ATTOCK:

A confident Imran Khan claimed on Monday that an overwhelming majority of people have already decided to vote for his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“May 11 [election day] will herald a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s politics,” says PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

Addressing a public rally in Attock, Imran said his party would not let Nawaz Sharif to come to power a sixth time.  “Had they (the PML-N) been sincere in changing the condition of the nation, they would have done it much earlier,” he added.

Criticising the PML-N’s flag-ship programmes as a ploy to win over the youth, the PTI chief said the Sharif brothers could not ‘purchase’ the youth by distributing laptops among them. He added that only the PTI could bring about change in Pakistan. “I honoured my promises in the past and I’ll also fulfil my promise of introducing a change.”

He accused the former ruling parties of massive corruption. “We [on the other hand] have no idea how corruption is done,” he said and promised that after coming to power, “neither will the PTI  indulge in corruption nor will it allow anybody to do it.”

The PTI chief reiterated that if voted to power, his party would hold local government elections to devolve power to the grassroots level and to rid the nation of ‘thana-kachery and patwari’ system. “The change will come 12 days after the PTI takes over,” he said.

Imran advised Nawaz to “sit in the pavilion” because his turn will never come now. He also accused the Sharif brothers for being hands in glove with President Asif Ali Zardari.  “Had the PML-N not bolstered Zardari’s government throughout the past five years, the country wouldn’t have been mired in a medley of crises,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.