Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said that strong leadership was needed both in Pakistan and India to take peace initiative and resolve the Kashmir issue.
Speaking at the Pak-India Economic Conference on Tuesday, Khan said the resolution of Kashmir issue would be his top most priority after coming into power.
Khan said the leadership of both the countries should move forward to improve bilateral relations, as the young generation in India and Pakistan wanted change. He said that there was lack of trust and both the countries should take measures for trust building.
Khan called for balance of trade between Pakistan and India. He said that the time had come for Pakistan and India to look at each other with a different view point. “Dividends of peace are enormous,” Khan said, adding that time had come for new relations and for putting an end to hatred.
He said that there were several interpretations of jihad (holy war), but raising voice against injustice was also a form of jihad.
Separately, the PTI chief said that courage was needed to give up Punjab government, but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lacked that courage.
Addressing a press conference on the occasion of SM Zafar’s son Asim Zafar’s induction in the PTI, Khan said that it was good to see the children of influential politicians join the PTI with commitment to bring change in the country. “This revolution is coming in every household of the country,” he added.
Criticising Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the PTI chief said that if Malik had evidence on the corruption done by the Sharif brothers, why he was not submitting it to the courts.
Reiterating his stance over the prime minister’s conviction, the PTI chief said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had been proved guilty and convicted by the Supreme Court, but the Pakistan People’s Party and its coalition partners were continuing their support for him. He said the PTI would never allow the government to ridicule the apex court.
On the occasion, senior PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the important thing to do at the moment was to pressurise the government to comply with the court’s ruling.
“The government will not run for a single day if the lawyers’ organisations, the PML-N and the PTI stand in front of the government,” the former foreign minister said.
Qureshi said the PML-N always came into power with the support of other elements, and their leadership lacked the courage to quit the Punjab government.
He vowed that the PTI would stage historical protests if the government failed to comply with the court judgment.
Meanwhile, PML-Quaid Senator SM Zafar said on this occasion that he had given freedom to his children to join any political party they considered best fit with their ideology.
His son Asim Zafar said that he was joining the PTI because Imran Khan possessed all the qualities which his father had.
