Imran Khan urges 'neutrals' to review policies while there is still time

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday urged “neutrals” to “review their policies” while there was still time, Aaj News reported.

“I want to ask my neutrals today, are you concerned about this nation? Do you know where the country is heading?” he said while addressing a seminar on press freedom in Islamabad.

“How can the country and economy progress when you don’t even know what will happen in the next 2-3 months,” he questioned, adding that economic stability was impossible without political stability, for which, free and fair elections were necessary.

Earlier, in his speech, Imran said that he always thought the country’s establishment would care more about Pakistan than the corrupt politicians.

“When I was in opposition, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) used to tell him about the corruption of the PPP and PML-N. I started believing that establishment will act but that did not happen.”

The PTI chief expressed fear of being ‘poisoned’ like the people who were witnesses in the corruption case against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Addressing a seminar on press freedom in Islamabad, Imran said that the investigators asked Shahbaz Gill weird questions, like, what are Imran Khan’s eating habits?

“They are not concerned for my health,” Imran said.

Imran concerned over extension of physical remand of Gill

Condemning the brutalities on Gill, Imran claimed that he was tortured.

“They brutally tortured Shahbaz Gill in jail on the first night of his arrest, forcing him to give a false statement against me,” Imran said.

“It was arm-twisting to persuade Gill what he said (on a private TV channel) was at Khan’s behest,” he added.

“A sentence of Gill’s statement could be perceived as wrong but there are more blazing anti-military statements given by Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Fazlur Rehman, and others who did not face any action.

Gill being pressurised to record statement against IK: Umar

PTI chairman said that the torture on Shahbaz Gill was part of their strategy to frighten people into accepting those who looted the country for three decades as their rulers.

The ex-PM said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was not under his control but somebody else had the ‘accelerator’ who controlled the proceedings of corruption cases.

He criticised the two-party rule in Pakistan which was prevalent before PTI came into power in 2018.

Imran said the fight against corruption could not be fought solely, but it was a collective duty of society.

He said PML-N and PPP made corruption cases against each other.

He added that it was the media’s job to criticise the government.