ISF foundation day: Don’t be mental slaves, Imran Khan tells rulers

Democracy’s fruits cannot be enjoyed until then

ISLAMABAD: Reprimanding the country’s ruling elite, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan warned that the benefits of democracy could only trickle down to the people if the leaders are not mentally enslaved.

“Our rulers are mental slaves and mental slavery is even worse than physical slavery,” Imran Khan told the party workers at the eighth foundation day of Insaf Student Federation (ISF), the PTI’s students’ wing on Saturday.

Imran said: “We have become slaves of the Western culture and follow it blindly. Such mental slaves have no vision and are unfit to become leaders of Pakistan.”



The PTI chief referred to his stance of engaging the Taliban in talks. “At that time no one favoured the idea and I was branded as ‘Taliban Khan’ but now the entire world supports the idea of dialogue with the Taliban,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Taliban are no longer in the mood for talks.”



Imran particularly criticised polices of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as well as the main opposition group, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“No one can become a leader by merely holding portraits of his parents and grandparents,” he said, while referring to Bilawal Bhutto. “Reading out from hand written speeches does not help one become a leader,” he added.



He also did not miss the opportunity to mention alleged rigging in his speech and claimed the ruling PML-N had put pressure on an election tribunal judge, Justice (retd) Kazim Malik, to give a verdict in favour of the National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. The election tribunal had later de-seated Sadiq, who was re-elected as an MNA after a by-poll last month.

“And now Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf has started announcing packages for different cities, including Kissan package in Hafizabad after feeling the heat from the grown popularity of the PTI ahead of local government elections,” he said.

Talking about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Imran said it is an opportunity to put the country on the path of progress and development but the rulers have their own designs.



“Merely to safeguard the interests of their own business, they [government] want the CPEC to go through the province of Punjab instead of Balochistan, which is injustice to smaller provinces and backward areas,” he said. “Pakistan will suffer if the project is started from Punjab,” he warned.

Discussing performance of his party’s government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Imran said the situation of the K-P speaks volumes for his party’s performance before the next elections. “And we will not even need an election campaign,” he claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2015.