“A day will come when we will help the poor people of India. We will prefer friendship over slavery,” he said, adding that he was staging the sit-in to pursue that dream.
The PTI chief also shared his vision for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in the future, saying his party would build 350 small dams in the province. “The rate of electricity will be Rs2 per unit and within a year, the reforms in the K-P’s police system will become visible,” he said.
He said his government in the K-P had tried to spend money on the poor. “Currently, the minimum wage in the province stands at Rs15,000 and 28% of the total budget is being spent on education. Our Tameer-e-School programme is under way. We have lowered the prices of flour and ghee, while free medicines are available in hospitals,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Sharif and Bhutto families, Imran Khan said they had doubled their personal assets during their successive governments.
“However, [upon coming into power] we will not allow any minister to pursue his business, because it is against the spirit of conflict of interest,” Imran told his supporters at D-Chowk. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), according to Imran, is the first province to introduce a conflict of interest law.
He claimed that public money was being misused by rulers. “A huge amount of money is spent on the palatial houses of the prime minister and president, while Rs1.5 billion is annually spent on the police deputed in Raiwand, the personal residence of the Sharif family,” he said.
Imran claimed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was going to spend Rs400 million on his upcoming four-day trip to the US. In contrast, he cited the example of British Premier David Cameron who travelled to America on a regular flight and stayed in a room of the British Embassy to save public money.
The PTI chief also decried the government’s policies towards the US and the International Monetary Fund and said that because of wrong policies of the previous governments there was a Rs1,10,000 loan against every Pakistani.
Addressing the people of Karachi, where he will be addressing a rally today (Sunday), the PTI chief said: “I’m coming to Karachi to liberate you from mafias.”
Karachi sit-in
Addressing a zealous crowd of men, women and children in Karachi, the PTI cleader Asad Umar said the PTI had no personal enmity against PM Nawaz. “But we are staging a protest because this is not the Pakistan that Muhammad Ali Jinnah made or what Allama Iqbal thought of,” he said.
The PTI MNA said if they wanted ‘Azadi’, then they would have to stand up and fight. “The sit-in has given a message to the world that they will not accept the rule of VVIP culture, regime of few families, governance of dishonesty, corruption and injustice,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2014.
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Question is how long you can hold the change, the change which is written all over the walls....
@Dr.A.KTewari: You should not worry in regards to KPK, because Provincial Government is taking care of poor people of province. Imran Khan has stated in his statement that there is help provided by Government of KPK
Look , now he is talking about poor people of India . What about poor people of KP .
real education and good ideas are rejected by the majority as they want easy money and selfish existence. ik remains only hope but leads a huge minority as majority citizens could care less about their nation instead live ordinary lives and lead nation to a lousy status of state and darkness, physical or moral.