Pakistan

Braced up: Imran wants Mandela-style reconciliation in FATA

PTI chief to make four recommendations at APC.

Ali Usman September 09, 2013

PTI chief along with other leaders from the party sit on the stage during a function organised by PTI Labor Wing at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. PHOTO: INP

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) will put forward four sets of recommendations to the All Parties Conference convened by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday, the party chief Imran Khan disclosed on Sunday while addressing workers and labourers at the Insaf Labour Convention at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

Khan announced that PTI will participate in the APC and present four points.

The first point is: Pakistan must get out of the US war on terrorism. The second point is: We must start dialogue to end terrorism. The third point is: We should adopt policy of reconciliation in tribal areas on the pattern of Nelson Mandela’s policy. And fourth point is that we must conduct a military operation against those who do not want to do negotiations; but an APC should be called before launching a military operation.

He complained that “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is the province most affected by terrorism. I want to know what the government policy on drone strikes was, and for that I had requested a closed door meeting with the interior minister, the chief of army staff and the prime minister before the APC, but I have received no response from any quarters.”

He added, “We will try to stand united against terrorism because without getting rid of this menace Pakistan cannot progress.”

Addressing the convention, Imran said that PTI was taking practical steps for the welfare of labourers and an accountability bill was being drafted in K-P. He added that the law aimed at nabbing the corrupt people at an upper level in the hierarchy. “

He stressed that manufacturing enterprises must take good care of the workers. He praised the spirit of a football manufacturing factory in Sialkot which received appreciation the world over because its owner took good care of the labourers. “Pakistan can progress only if its labourers are taken care of and not treated as slaves,” he added.

“In a meeting with Mahathir Mohammad, I asked him about privatisation in his country, and he told me that privatisation that benefitted the country was good but the one which benefitted just a group of people is harmful. That is what is happening in Pakistan. Pakistan’s assets have been plundered in the name of privatisation,” Imran said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2013.