Imran demands fresh polls

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said nothing would change with a new prime minister and demanded that elections be held immediately.
Addressing a press conference, Khan said though an early election might prove harmful for his party, it would be in the interest of the country. He said transparent elections could not be expected with Asif Ali Zardari sitting in the Presidency as he was also the co-chairman of a political party.
He said the Punjab government had failed to protect the life and property of the people during the protests against load shedding, announcing that he would support the people of Punjab in their protests against power outages.
“The PTI will not only protest against load shedding, but it will also protest against inflation,” Khan said.
“I want to tell Faisalabadis to be ready as I am coming to stand by them on June 27,” he said, adding that he would start his protest movement from Faisalabad and would also visit other cities of the province.
Asked to comment on the Supreme Court’s order of disqualifying Yousaf Raza Gilani, Khan said the former prime minister was punished for his defiance against the court’s orders.
Earlier, in an interview with Julian Assange, the PTI chief explained the recent surge in his popularity.
Acknowledging that things changed drastically for the PTI after the two big rallies in Lahore and Karachi, Khan linked his rise to the exposure given to him by the Pakistani electronic media during former president Pervez Musharraf’s tenure especially during the emergency.
“Politicians have realised that the vote bank belongs to me now and that is why they are joining my party,” Khan said.
He said he had boycotted the elections held under Musharraf, because he believed they were rigged by the “Americans” and were meant to bring the corrupt politicians back in power.
Hired gun: He said the relationship between the US and Pakistan was that of a master and client. “Pakistan is a hired gun, being paid to kill America’s enemies”, Khan said.
Talking about Osama bin Laden’s assassination, Khan said the US operation on Pakistan’s soil in May 2011 against bin Laden was the “ultimate humiliation” for the state, which was “sacrificing for the US” because it turned out that “our ally (US) did not trust us and actually came and killed someone on our own soil”.
“40,000 Pakistanis have been killed fighting America’s war. Basically, our own army was killing our own people,” he said in the interview.
“No country has ever been bombed by its own ally, as we have been bombed. Never has a country’s ruling elite, for personal benefits, have betrayed their own people as much as the elite under Musharraf and the current elite have,” Khan said.
The cricketer-turned-politician insisted that the relationship between the US and Pakistan needed to change, it should be based on “dignity and self-respect” and not “client-master” model.