RAWALPINDI – If the price increase in petroleum products is not withdrawn, a civil disobedience movement will be launched, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said while addressing a packed gathering on Sunday.
“This hike has made the lives of poverty-stricken citizens impossible,” Khan said, adding that PTI will lead the civil disobedience movement from the front. PTI has been organizing countrywide gathering against inflation, corruption, Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST), US launched drone attacks in tribal areas and unprecedented cutting of electricity and gas for some months now.
PTI workers were not allowed to set a stage for their leaders by the police in Rawalpindi on Sunday. Law enforces displayed a general carelessness and lethargy and did not carry out any body searchers at entry and exit points. “Punjab government is doing this deliberately to discourage people from attending our protest demonstrations,” the PTI city chapter leaders alleged.
“Punjab government should put its resources to a better use,” Khan said. “The government is making people pay for its expenditures as well,”” Khan said, adding that if PPP leadership and PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif were sincere, they would have brought their money back from foreign banks.
“Zardari and Nawaz are two sides of a same coin. They are trying to fool the masses by leveling allegations against each other in public and enjoy a very cordial relation behind curtains,” he said, adding the rich were not paying taxes. Terming the Federal Board of Revenue as den of corruption, Khan said if government thwarts corruption in FBR then the country could earn profit of Rs 700 billion per year.
He alleged that 61 percent of the politicians evade taxes, with lawmakers from PML-N and PPP topping the list. Imran also criticized government’s ‘war on terror’ policies by saying that drones were killing dozens every day and the government was silent.
