Punjab by-polls to decide future of Pakistan: Imran Khan

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that the forthcoming by-elections in Punjab are not ordinary polls, as they will decide the future of the country, Aaj News reported.

"This is not only the war of Imran Khan but it is a war of you all. This is jihad, not politics," Khan said while addressing a large public gathering in Punjab’s Khushab town ahead of by-polls on 20 vacant seats of the Punjab Assembly scheduled to be held on July 17.

"These turncoats fixed the price of their consciences and committed treason against their nation, constitution, and religion," Imran Khan said, seeking a promise from the people of Khushab that they will defeat the turncoats in by-elections and reinstate the PTI's government in Punjab.

He said that Mr X is sitting in Lahore with them [the government] for rigging the [upcoming] by-elections. "I will not say whothis person is, as you know who I am talking about."

Turncoats of 'every size and colour' will be defeated in Punjab by-polls: Imran Khan

He said that an official had helped the PML-N rig the 2013 general elections, and they awarded him by making him the head of the anti-corruption department.

The PTI chief said that the chief election commissioner (CEC) is the other person who would perform rigging for them in the Punjab by-polls.

"I have seen just today that his wife has been awarded a post in customs where a lot of money could be minted," he said.

Despite that, PTI would defeat PML-N in the upcoming by-polls, he vowed.

PTI accuses govt of using state machinery to win by-elections

Imran reiterated that the current government is composed of corrupt leaders who do not have the best interests of the country at heart.

“Sharifs and Zardaris have never been honest in their lives and they have always lied in courts or anywhere else,” Imran Khan said and added that his struggle against them is not politics but ‘Jihad.’

He claimed that the people would never accept crooks as their rulers and termed Hamza Shehbaz as the illegitimate chief minister of Punjab.