LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial to stand with the nation to save the country from ‘thieves’.
While addressing the PTI’s long march participants via video link here on Sunday he said, I request honourable chief justice on behalf of the nation that the time has come for Pakistan’s judiciary to stand with the nation and bring powerful under the law. He further said that people lost confidence in the government and the system after what happened to the slain journalist Arshad Sharif and PTI Senator Azam Swati.
He remarked “Chief justice Sahib you have to give justice to them.” He lamented that being the former PM and head of Pakistan’s ‘largest political party’ he could not even get a first information report (FIR) of failed assassination attempt lodged against him. “Now we want our courts to assert their authority” he said.
He also referred to his petition that he filed against NAB amendments, saying that he was expecting judiciary to strike down legislation which he said was aimed at protecting corruption. Nation is looking towards judiciary and chief justice he added.
The incumbent government which “was imposed on the country by ‘handlers’” has miserably failed to resolve the country’s economic woes, he said.
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He demanded to hold early elections. He claimed that present government is taking the country towards destruction and destroying its economy. He said that those who destroyed the economy and institutions of the country could not resolve the country’s problems. Imran said the ones who ‘imposed’ the incumbent rulers on the country made a mistake and added that no efforts were made to fix this mistake.
The PTI chief claimed that the major hurdle to holding early elections was PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif is scared of elections because he knows that he will lose election, He is pushing the country towards destruction for his vested interests, he added. Imran said how come “dishonest” people can take decisions about the future of the country.
He alleged that a criminal sitting in London is taking decisions about the future of the country and deciding about the appointment of next army chief which is illegal and unlawful he said.
Imran said he had been demanding snap polls because only free and free elections can pave way for political and economic stability in the country. He said the by-election results have established that people have rejected the “thieves” imposed on the country.
Highlighting the objective of long march he said to make people aware of what is happening to them. No matter how much you scare people, impose restrictions on media but social media is there and youth have awakened he added.
He also claimed that unprecedented number of people will gather in Rawalpindi by the time long march reached there to “demand their rights.
Speaking about the foreign policy, Imran asked the coalition government led by PML-N to tell one thing that it has achieved by “polishing boots”. We always wanted to pursue independent and sovereign foreign policy, he added. PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi led the participants of party’s now divided long march on the federal government in Kharian, Secretary General Asad Umar led the march in Faisalabad and Pervez Khattak led the one in Nowshera.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022