“The objective of our sit-ins has not been achieved yet,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday. “Our efforts will materialise after the Human Tsunami scheduled for November 30.”
He was addressing a gathering at the sit-in at D-Chowk.
Khan said that the party had received Rs50 million from PTI supporters for the Human Tsunami so far. “The funds were gathered by Pakistanis abroad... they are very generous in funding noble causes,” he said. The November 30 gathering in Islamabad would be a decisive one as far as the movement’s objectives went, Khan said.
“Pakistanis are the most generous people in the whole world, yet they avoid paying taxes because they know that they will not be spent on people’s welfare.” Khan said that Shaukat Khanum Hospital continued to receive a lot of donations each year. “Because people know that we have a transparent system and that the money will only go towards subsidising treatment of poor cancer patients.”
He said they will construct another Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Peshawar next year.
He said if people knew that their tax money was being spent in a transparent manner, they would voluntarily pay the amount. “In new Pakistan, tax money will be spent on people’s welfare and development rather than feeding its rulers.”
He said it was because of unchecked corruption in WAPDA that consumers received inflated electricity bills. “The PTI forced the government to slash the prices of petroleum products,” he said.
PTI Central Information Secretary Shireen Mazari, in a statement issued on Thursday, said Khan’s demand for an inquiry by a panel of Supreme Court judges to probe rigging allegations did not imply that he was going to call off the sit-in.
Mazari said Khan had made clear that the sit-in will continue till the inquiry committee completes its investigation. The statement said that the PTI will not accept a committee constituted by the government unless the prime minister resigned. Khan believes that the committee will not be able to function independently unless the prime minister stepped down.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2014.
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