While asking Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to furnish evidence of poll rigging in the parliament, Federal Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that the country could not afford politics of confrontation.
In an interview, the information minister said that Khan would “suffer a lot” if he proceeded on the path of politics of agitation with the backing of Pakistan Awami Tehkreek (PAT)’s Tahirul Qadri and Awami Muslim League (AML)’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmad.
The information minister said there was Parliament in the country, an independent judiciary and all the institutions were gaining strength. “Instead of agitating on the roads, Khan should bring his case in the Parliament.”
Pervaiz Rashid said that if elections were rigged then PTI’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was also a product of rigging. In this situation, he said, Imran Khan and his party had no right to sit in the assemblies or run the KP government. He asked Khan to resign from the KP government and assemblies and then “show his love for protests on roads”.
The minister was confident that Khan would lose his case in the court of the people as he lost in the apex court. He said Khan lost the rigging case in the court and his party’s candidate lost the seat to PML-N candidate. In this way, the rigging was done against the PML-N and not the PTI, he argued.
Rashid said Khan has been pursuing the “politics of negative tactics” and that is why people rejected him in general elections. He asked the PTI chief to wait for the appropriate time. He said the PML-N government has been formed with the backing of the people and not with the support of PTI.