Imran rebuffs US bounty on Hafiz Saeed

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday criticised the US for announcing a bounty of $10 million for the arrest of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the chief of the defunct Jamaatud Dawa, saying nobody could be arrested unless he was proven guilty by a court of law.
Addressing a press conference, the PTI chief said that if there was any evidence against Saeed, they should approach court to prove him guilty. The way the US had announced head-money for Hafiz Saeed was "quite foolish...he is innocent because nothings has been proven against him", he said. Imran Khan also criticised the government for its failure to hold talks with the Pakistani Taliban in accordance with the recommendations of an all-parties conference.
Referring to the issue of reopening Nato supply, he said that all political parties were duplicitous and the government was moving from pillar to post "to get some money from the US in return". When asked to comment about JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman's stance regarding the Nato suppy, he said that he was the "real culprit" because he was the man who stood by Musharraf when thousands of people in tribal areas were killed by US drones.
"The Maulana has just awakened from a deep slumber and threatens of dire consequences if Nato supply is reopened. Was he sleeping when people in Fata were being killed when it was his government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the Musharraf regime?" he questioned. He said that currently, his party was not weighing any option to launch a civil disobedience movement against the government as it could result in tearing down the entire democratic set up.
Lauding the Supreme Court for taking up the Mehran Bank scandal, he urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to broaden the scope of investigation and nab ISI-backed politicians. He said his party was planning to hold a public rally in Quetta on April 20.
Tashfeen Safdar, who is the granddaughter of the former President of Pakistan Chaudhry Fazal Elahi also announced to join PTI. Imran Khan, while unveiling his party's rural governance vision, said that if voted into power, over Rs 625 billion for the development of villages, will be released for executing a five-year plan. Speaking at a roundtable conference titled, 'PTI's rural vision empowering the community', he said that every year Rs 125 billion would go directly to all villages of Pakistan. This would mean a direct investment of Rs 10 million per average village in five years, he added. He said that the local governance system should be based on natural and traditional structures that have evolved over centuries.