Ruling parties are supporting terrorist groups:Imran Khan

Lahore: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that the Sunni-Shia conflict had an international dimension but the real cause was incompetence by governments.

“The support to terror outfits by major parties that are making seat adjustments with organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has added to the menace of terrorism. Once in power, PTI will eradicate terrorism,” Imran Khan made these remarks while talking to media persons after who had recently been martyred in target killing in Lahore.

Imran Khan termed the killing of Dr. Ali Haider a national tragedy, as due to his demise, the country has been deprived of internationally recognized eye specialist. Lashing out at the government, the PTI Chairman said that the government did nothing for eradicating the militancy and extremism for the past five years from the country, adding that even the rulers miserably failed in launching any welfare project for the poverty-stricken and inflation-ridden masses.

Imran Khan said that both the ruling parties – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) – were involved in providing refuge to the terrorists of banned outfits and both the parties were even making seat-adjustment arrangements with these banned outfits just to attain power, while both the parties were little bothered about the masses’ miseries.

The PTI Chief advised the people of Karachi that they should not vote for those political parties who had armed wings. Imran Khan said that the on-going killing spree due to Shia-Sunni conflict was a part of an internal conspiracy.

Khan vowed that the PTI would disengage the country from the US-led war on terrorism and would initiate dialogue process with Taliban, besides banning the foreign funding for the terrorist groups, if it had been voted to power.

“The incumbent governments have totally failed in dealing with the militancy and restoring peace in the country, but the PTI would deal with all these issues of sectarianism, militancy and extremism, which the other parties failed to do despite being in power for several times,” Imran Khan asserted.

Replying a question, Imran Khan said that the PTI was supporting the idea of holding talks with Taliban since long, but other parties were mocking at it and even the move was termed a conspiracy by Jews and Christians. However, he said that it was quite surprising that all these parties were now backing the PTI’s suggestion of dialogue.

“The JUI-F and ANP should tell the nation that why did they not convene the APC five years back despite being a part of the government, as they have convened the APC when the government is about to complete its five-year tenure,” he argued.

Terming the Metro bus service, laptop and tax schemes as a part of pre-poll rigging, Imran Khan said that the Punjab government could not fool the masses by launching these initiatives with public money because they had been exposed before the masses and the people had already made their mind to vote for the PTI.

The PTI Chairman said that pre-polls rigging on the peak in Punjab and the latest example of it was the regularization of 10,000 contract employees.