"Pursuing commercial interests on the pretext of freedom of expression is unacceptable," says PTI chief Imran Khan. PHOTO: PTI
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan termed the media campaign against the country’s premier intelligence agency – the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) – by a television channel malicious, saying that even an enemy state would not resort to such actions.
Addressing a party convention held to mark the 18th anniversary of the PTI, he condemned the unilateral media campaign against the national security institution which, he said, has brought a bad name to the army and the spy agency. “If our army is strong, then our country is strong,” reiterated Khan. He said media houses should not act against any state institution for vested interests.
“What Geo TV did was absolutely wrong. Pursuing commercial interests on the pretext of freedom of expression is unacceptable,” he said. Even the government followed an agenda to malign the intelligence agency, Imran claimed.
The PTI chairman also announced that his party would launch a countrywide movement on May 11 for an independent election commission and to ‘expose the massive rigging’ in the May 2013 general elections.
Imran, who was previously a supporter of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, alleged that the former chief justice had a key role in the election manipulation. “Iftikhar Chaudhry, you were also involved in this match fixing,” he said. “We had accepted the election for the continuation of democracy, but we have not accepted the rigging and will fight to expose it.”
The former chief justice did not take up election rigging complaints, the PTI chief regretted.
Imran went to the apex court to seek the chief justice’s help in the verification of voters’ thumbprints at four National Assembly constituencies, but Iftikhar Chaudhry had excused saying that there were 20,000 pending cases in the apex court.
“I was shocked that the former chief justice had time to take suo motu notices against a woman on a single bottle of wine, but he did not have time to take up key election cases,” he said, adding that his party will also go to the new chief justice to take up these cases, he maintained.
The PTI chief also invited other political forces, who believe that the May 11 elections were rigged, to join hands with him. “We stand for democracy. Those who are guilty of rigging the elections should be exposed and must be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution.”
He added, “We will fight for an independent election commission and an independent Supreme Court.”
Imran criticised the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in Punjab for ‘using official machinery’ to manipulate three by-elections in the province. “No such situation occurred during the by-polls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa [where the PTI is in power],” he added. “The PTI is the party that accommodated the poor and we want the son of a poor man to become the prime minister of this country.”
On corruption, Imran said the country has weak accountability laws, as the two major political parties have a tacit understanding not to hold each other accountable. “These parties cannot enact effective accountability laws as long as their money is in foreign banks,” he said. “There should be a neutral accountability bureau to enforce the law irrespective of the class system.”
The PTI chief said his party has enacted a strong accountability law in K-P, which would be applicable across the board to check corruption and bad governance. He said PTI, for the first time, is going to enact a new conflict of interest law in the province, under which no government functionary would take part in financial matters.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2014.
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