PTI yet not consulted on nomination of neutral caretaker premier:Imran Khan

Islamabad:Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday said that his party had yet not been consulted for the nomination of a neutral caretaker prime minister.

Addressing a press conference here at PTI central secretariat, Imran Khan said that the federal and Punjab governments were trying to purchase votes by dolling out heavy funds in the name of development funds to its lawmakers and even candidates, warning that if the election commission did not intervene, such a practice may incite a major political disaster.

“The PTI will take out a huge tsunami march if a neutral umpire (caretaker prime minister) is not appointed. We will protest to save the democratic process from a total disaster,” he maintained.

Referring to the long march taken out by Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran chief Dr Tahirul Qadri, Khan said it was the first step towards a true change through ballot and general elections would prove that a major change is coming in Pakistan.

“The forces of status-quo claim that the long march has failed. Actually this was the first step toward success as thousands of people came out on roads to bring about a change. Over 90 percent people want a change in Pakistan as reflected by a recent poll conducted by a US firm,” he added.

Asked whether the PTI would go for an election alliance with Dr Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Imran Khan said that it was yet to be decided by the PAT whether or not it would take part in elections. “We will decide over the matter once elections would be announced”, he added.

Referring to the assassination of Kamran Faisal, a NAB official probing the Rental Power Project case, Khan called upon Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take a suo-motu notice and get the matter investigated under the apex court supervision.

“A brother of four sisters and a father of two daughters has lost his life under mysterious circumstances. Since he was investigating in a case in which prime minister was also involved, this matter should be thoroughly probed into,” he added.

He said Kamran was killed to send a strong message to other officials investigating the sensitive case of Rental Power Projects (RPPs). Terming the matter similar to that of TV journalist Wali Khan Babar, Khan said that in Babar’s case, all the six witnesses had been killed one by one with no headway in the case yet.

He made it clear that since the Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was involved in the rental power project case, hence a fair trial of the case was next to impossible by the team constituted by the government.

The PTI Chairman said that it was impossible to bring the culprit involved in the killing of Faisal to justice in the presence of the incumbent government as in the case of Wali Babar.

Imran Khan said that the demands of the TMQ were similar to those of the PTI; however, the approach to get the issues resolved was different as the PTI wanted a change through the ballot while the TMQ opted to stage a long march.

Imran Khan reiterated his demand that the President Asif Ali Zardari should immediately resign, as under him holding of free, fair and transparent election was almost impossible. However, he said that when the PTI tried to build pressure for his removal, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) jumped into the fray to rescue Zardari.

“The PML-N once again has come to rescue the President. When the people were staging a sit-in in front of the parliament house, Nawaz Sharif gathered forces of status-quo to counter the people’s march and said that if Zardari resigned, the PPP would elect a new president”.

Imran Khan asked Nawaz Sharif to answer why his party had launched “Go Zardari Go Campaign” on October 28 with a jalsa in Lahore and why the same party has reverted from its earlier stance.

“Since the PTI has gathered a huge following among the public, the PPP and PML-N, and other forces of status-quo have joined hands to keep status quo intact. But now the people of Pakistan would foil all conspiracies being hatched against them,” he maintained.

He said that the upcoming election would bring a revolutionary change in the county, as the people had fed up of the status-quo parties and the practical demonstration could be witnessed in the recent long march led by Dr. Tahirul Qadri.

He said that the PTI did not participate in the long march because the party always resisted the unconstitutional move, vowing that change was in the offing and it would be brought through the force of ballot.

Imran Khan said that the PTI feels that the nation had tolerated the incumbent government for more than four years and the PPP should not be made a martyr when the government was only two months away from completing its five-year tenure.

Replying to a query, Imran Khan made it clear that the PTI would prefer to go into the next polls alone rather than to making alliance with any government party.

He said that a strong election commission and impartial caretaker prime minister a must for holding free, fair and transparent elections, threatening that if the coming election was not held under neutral umpire that would be disastrous for the country.

Talking about Pakistan financial situation, the PTI Chairman said that the recently released IMF report showed that financially the country was heading toward a disaster. Imran Khan urged the election commission of Pakistan to take notice of the use of development funds for political purposes as after the allocation of development funds to MNAs and MPAs, now the ruling party was dolling out funds to its candidates for the upcoming elections.

To a question about the agreement signed between the government and Dr. Tahirul Qadri, Imran Khan said that there were some good points in the agreement but the question was that who will implement it as there was no constitutional cover for such changes and Dr Qadri also had no tool to get the agreement implemented while the PPP leadership also had a track record of violating its agreements in the past.

He said that it was every party’s constitutional right to hold protest or stage long march but the PTI would go for it when and if needed, adding that he had asked his party’s workers to remain prepared for his call.