Refusing to budge: Imran to go to court against PM for ‘lying’

Says he will hold Nawaz Sharif accountable for his ‘lies to the nation’.

ISLAMABAD:

Reiterating his demand for the prime minister to step down, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Saturday that he would file a case against Nawaz Sharif in the Supreme Court for ‘lying to the nation’ in the National Assembly.

“Do not think that Imran Khan will sit idle in this [shipping] container and wait for your resignation. The PTI is going to file a case in the Supreme Court [against you for telling a lie to the nation],” he said while addressing participants of the sit-in who moved back to D-Chowk Saturday evening.

Imran said the government had also lied that the Chinese president was visiting Pakistan and that the trip was cancelled due to ongoing protests in the federal capital. “The Chinese president was not coming to Pakistan but the government lied that his visit was postponed due to the PTI’s protest demonstrations,” he added.



He said the government also lied before the media that it had agreed to all PTI’s demands except for that of PM’s resignation. “They had lied for they had not accepted even a single of our demands,” he added.

He clarified that he was not agitating against the government at anyone else’s behest. “If I had been agitating at the army’s behest, the army would have intervened,” he said.

Imran Khan reiterated his resolve of not ending the sit-in till the prime minister resigns. “If anyone thinks that I will go back without Nawaz Sharif’s resignation, he is mistaken,” he added.

The PTI chief said 24 days had passed since the PTI started its protest sit-in in Islamabad and the rulers should not think that the number of people would start decreasing with the passage of time. He once again asked people to join him against corruption irrespective of their party affiliations. “This is a decisive war, therefore, join it,” he added.

Referring to recent row between Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan, he said Nawaz Sharif asked Nisar not to respond to Aitzaz’s allegations because he wanted to continue his ‘dynastic rule’.



He said both the PPP and the PML-N had joined hands because they were aware of each other’s corruption. “They [government and opposition] have made an agreement but now you [government] will have to face real opposition [the PTI],” he said.

Imran once again referred to the alleged irregularities in the 2013 elections and said the interior minister had acknowledged on the floor of the National Assembly that 60,000 to 70,000 votes in each constituency could not be verified.

Khan hit hard at JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and said “I will never forgive you for the statement you made about our daughters and sisters.”

Political jirga

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq and other members of the opposition’s political jirga reached Karachi on Saturday where they met former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, the PPP leader Rehman Malik said the political jirga was doing its best to break the deadlock and would not disappoint the nation. “The parties involved should shun blame-game and instead promote politics of reconciliation,” Malik said according to Radio Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2014.