Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday repeated his allegation that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were working in collusion with each other to protect themselves from accountability.
The PTI chief also highlighted the achievements of his party’s government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Talking to Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami on his talkshow DNA on Channel 24, Khan said that the PTI government had empowered the provincial police by relieving it from political pressure.
“Police in KP is fully independent under the inspector general of police and no politician can influence the transfers and postings of police officials. People are now not afraid to go to police stations,” he said.
Similarly, Khan added that the entire provincial bureaucracy was working under the chief secretary and only he was empowered to order postings of his officials.
“We have also empowered our local governments and they are being allocated development funds to start projects in their constituencies,” he said.
Khan said the development projects announced by the PML-N government were aimed at garnering public support for the party in the general elections due in 2018.
“CPEC, Orange Line train and metro bus systems in Lahore and Multan and the coal-generated power plant in Sahiwal are examples of projects that the PML-N has announced to woo its voters support in the next elections,” he said.
Khan denied that the PTI’s 126-day sit-in protest against rigging in the last general elections had helped in preventing rigging in the by-elections.
“All parties involved in rigging are in favour of maintaining the status quo and it was only the PTI that had protested against this system,” he said.
Alleging the PML-N of corrupt practices, Khan said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should investigate the award of contracts to companies involved in the Metro and Orange Line projects in Lahore.
The PTI chief said that his party had empowered the provincial accountability commission which is why even its own lawmakers were arrested for involvement in corrupt practices.
“KP’s accountability chief resigned over some differences with the provincial government but then I presided over several consultations to ensure that KP has a transparent and empowered accountability commission,” he said.
The PTI chief accused the ruling family of hiding their foreign assets, saying that while he has challenged the father (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) for a debate, Nawaz’s son Hussain Nawaz is challenging him to a debate over the issue.
Khan also criticized the economic policies of the ruling party, saying the federal government had ignored the low income sections and the farmers’ community while framing its policies.
On the upheaval in the MQM, Khan said that former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal’s allegations against Altaf Hussain had endorsed his 9-year-old stance against the MQM’s self-exiled leader.
“I think that the agencies have done a good job by launching Mustafa Kamal against Altaf Hussain i.e. if the agencies did have a role in Kamal’s defection. This is a huge favour to the masses and the Urdu speaking people and in the best interest of the country,” he said.
Khan also questioned the government’s decision to privatise state-owned entities like PIA and Steel Mills.
“Rather than improving the management of such entities, the government intends to sell them to foreign companies. In KP, we reformed the managements of loss-making companies instead of selling them off. Why can’t the Sharif government reform the steel mills when the family itself is running a successful steel mill in Saudi Arabia? In PIA’s case, the PML-N government wants to bulldoze its privatization bill from joint session without taking the opposition parties into confidence over the issue,” he said.
On a question related to his plans to marry for a third time, the PTI chief said marriage was not on the cards for now, saying that he was still recovering from the collapse of his recent marriage (with TV anchorperson Reham Khan).
