Imran hits out at Zardari

LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan on Friday urged his workers and supporters particularly the youth to register their protests Friday night, adding that he now expects the Supreme Court to play its role in light of Hamza Shehbaz’s shock win over Parvez Elahi in Punjab CM election.

“I am in shock at what happened in the Punjab Assembly,” he said referring to Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari’s ruling to not count PML-Q votes — a decision that reduced PTI-backed Parvez EIahi’s votes from 186 to 176 and handed him a shocking defeat.

While addressing the media here, he expressed his shock over the victory of Hamza Shehbaz in Punjab Assembly and urged the people to come out on the streets against the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker’s ruling.

“As per Article 63A, the parliamentary head of a political party decides a line of action for his or her party, and hence the decision to cast vote in the CM elections rested with PML-Q parliamentary leader Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi and not with Chaudhary Shujaat. This position was also held by legal experts. Knowing all this, the Deputy Speaker gave a ruling against us. Now, all eyes were on the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he added.

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He averred that Shujaat’s letter alone was ineffective; the decision rested with the parliamentary leader. Whatever happened today will further create economic uncertainty in the country, he added.

He further said that the only thing a parliament has is the that morality and democracy was based on morality. He always wanted Pakistan to have a democracy based on meritocracy and transparency, but its foundation should be based on morality.

The PTI Chairman said that the people will never accept this; “the people, especially the youth, should hold peaceful protests for their rights”. He also said that until the culprits face justice there was no future for Pakistan.

He recalled the horse-trading that took place in the Sindh House ahead of the vote of no-confidence against him.

“The legislators were put up for auction and Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari bought their loyalties with the looted public money. Last night, Zardari arrived in Lahore and we learnt that night that he was hatching a plan against us,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022