Confident of victory: PTI will form the next govt, says Imran

Says PML-N government is likely to change this year

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will form the next government in the country according to party chief Imran Khan, Gulf News reported on Wednesday.

“My hunch is the government will change this year. The good news is, it’s going to be PTI [that will come in power],” the PTI chairman said at an investment roadshow for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Dubai. He was responding to a question from the audience on what investors should expect if there is a change of government.

“In my political experience in the last 18 years, this [PTI’s success in the 2013 elections] is the only time a party has broken the two-party system [in Pakistan]. It [PTI] is the biggest in all four provinces,” the Dubai-based daily quoted Imran as saying.

The PTI chief told prospective investors that K-P, where his party has formed the government, is shedding its restive image after seeing its share of violence.

“The Americans are leaving, and with them leaving Afghanistan, the violence is already coming down. In the last year, we had the least amount of violence compared to the past five years,” he said. “Looking ahead, in Afghanistan I have hopes for [President Ashraf] Ghani’s government. Ghani is a man of integrity,” he added.

Imran said K-P’s police force should be an example for the rest of Pakistan. “It has totally been depoliticised. In Karachi, security is so poor because the police there is politicised.”

The PTI chief said his party is also rooting out corruption and red tape in the province.

“The biggest corruption happens when people are in power. In K-P, we have a totally independent accountability board that serves as a check and balance on the government,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2015.