Imran’s ‘tsunami dream’ very much alive

LAHORE: Content with nothing less than “tsunami”, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has said the party workers will gather in Islamabad on Sunday not to topple the government but to strengthen democracy and save Pakistan. Mr Khan gave May 11 protest call to a large number of party office-bearers from Lahore at the residence of PTI city president Abdul Aleem Khan. The PTI says it is protesting against rigging in the general elections and judiciary’s failure to give justice to the party. He said the PTI’s protest movement would continue till the realisation of justice. The PTI chief said the party would present a Charter of Demands at D-Chowk in Islamabad, which would identify rulers’ misdeeds and give suggestions to rectify and streamline the electoral system in Pakistan. Mr Khan said the party had filed petitions against rigging in 65 constituencies but he had demanded that the judiciary should ensure fair investigation into complaints in just four constituencies. “Where there is no justice and fair elections, real democracy cannot exist and prosper,” he stressed. Stating that the democracy had three pillars – independent judiciary, independent media and free and fair elections, Mr Khan remarked the PTI had earned two wickets and was heading to get the third one of unfair and corrupt election system. Dispelling the impression that the PTI’s May 11 protest demonstration was aimed at derailing democracy or had been organised at the behest of the Pakistan Army, Mr Khan said he was lying on hospital bed after a few days of general elections and announced that the party would accept the election but not rigging. “The PTI has knocked on each and every door including the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the election tribunals to get justice but all in vain,” he regretted. “The PTI demands that those who committed rigging in the elections should be punished and tried under Article 6,” he said. Criticising the government for not serving the masses by reducing loadshedding and joblessness, he said, the government could have looked after the problems if it had come into power through the votes of people. Instead, he said, the PML-N government doubled the electricity rates within 10 months, which the PPP government could do in its five-year tenure. “The government has given some Rs500 billion to those who helped the PML-N come into power,” he alleged. Mr Khan also criticised the owner of a media house for his “character assassination and blackmailing” and said he was not the one who could be intimidated. “The more you will tell lies against me, the more I will speak truth about you.”