PTI to hold rally in favour of SC in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has announced to hold a public rally in the federal capital to express solidarity with the judiciary in response to the excessive criticism being made by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his aides.

According to the details issued by party’s Central Media Department, the PTI chairman has stated that he would hold a ‘grand public rally’ in Islamabad, the date of which he will announce later, to show that the people of Pakistan stand with the judiciary after the ruling party’s decision to take an offensive line against the judiciary and debating the judges conduct in the parliament and other forums.

Addressing a press conference after chairing the party’s parliamentary meeting, the PTI chairman said that Nawaz Sharif is trying to paint himself innocent after robbing the public exchequer and taking looted wealth abroad. He said that the disgraced premier has only weakened state institutions for petty personal and political gains.

Talking about the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict on the Panama Papers case, he said: “Nawaz Sharif’s lies have been exposed, time and again and those were enough to drive him to jail.”

Imran added that the first lie was when the Qatari letter was discovered; the second was when Maryam Nawaz’s documents were found to be forged as the Calibri Font did not exist at the stated time and added that he would explain the rationale for Sharif’s ouster while alluding to Sharif’s popular slogan ‘Mujhe Kyun Nikala?’

Imran also stated that in a bid to safeguard the Sharif family’s corruption, all of the PML-N is hell bent upon undermining state institutions.

“Nawaz Sharif would have been in jail if the institutions were fully functional and non-partisan,” said Imran while adding that failed state institutions render a country backwards.

The PTI leader further added that Sharifs undeniably recruited their favourite officers on top slots of government departments, particularly in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to cover up their corruption.

He also criticized Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, saying that the Punjab government staged fake ‘police encounters’ and that Shehbaz himself got several people killed in fake encounters through former cop Abid Boxer, who was wanted by the police in extrajudicial killings.

He announced countrywide tours for the party membership drive and also vowed to mobilize masses to strengthen the judiciary’s integrity. “PMLN is now heading for a clash of institutions on the basis of having a people’s mandate, I will show them that the public stands with justice, not them,” Imran Khan maintained.

Responding to a question Imran slammed the PML-N government stating that US’s move to put Pakistan on a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watch list is a diplomatic failure. “The government’s incompetence has strengthened Narendra Modi’s narrative globally,” he said.