-PTI chief says his party accepted May 11 election results but did not endorse ‘massive rigging’
-Admits his ‘Tsunami’ remained restricted to country’s northern region only
-Says MQM’s demand for a separate province is a ‘fixed match’ with PPP
-Opposes giving Fazlur Rehman lead role in Taliban talks
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said there would be extreme anarchy in the country if the upcoming local government elections were rigged.
The former cricketer-turned-politician was addressing a public rally in Umer Kot, a town in Thar Desert in Sindh province, on the first leg of his election campaign in this region.
Khan said his party accepted the results of national elections held in May but did not endorse the massive rigging that had been committed. He told the rally that the country’s apex court had ordered electoral authorities to review the polls in two constituencies and the results would vindicate his point.
“I want to tell the establishment of the country that if local government elections are rigged there will be chaos on the streets of Pakistan,” he said.
The PTI chief admitted that his “Tsunami” had been restricted to the northern region and could not spread to the southern parts of the country because he had failed to give them his attention. “I promise you that I would compensate my mistake and I will go in each and every district of Sindh to get you people into power here,” he said.
FIXED MATCH:
Without naming Altaf Hussain, the chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Khan said that “people are talking of dividing Sindh but we are talking of uniting (the provinces)”.
He said that Altaf’s demand for a separate province for the urban people of Sindh was a “fixed match” with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Hussain, addressing an election rally in Karachi on Sunday, suggested the introduction of two zones in Sindh province to give equitable rights to the urban and rural population of the province.
Khan said there were no ethnic issues but the country was faced with the struggle of deprived masses against powerful tyrants. “Whenever the oppressed people get united they would eliminate tyrants in the country,” he said.
He said if his party was voted in the Sindh province, it would completely transform the lives of residents, who had been oppressed for long. “We will build a new Pakistan and [change] the government in Sindh [run it] like Khyber Pakhtunkhaw,” Khan promised.
The PTI formed a government in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province last May but critics say it has not met the expectations of the people.
Khan, justifying his party’s performance, said that all the other major parties ruled the country and provinces for decades but his party had been in charge of the province for only six months.
Addressing the rally, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi alleged that the May 11 election results in Sindh had been changed.
FAZL INAPPROPRIATE FOR TTP TALKS:
Earlier while speaking to reporters on his arrival in Hyderabad, Imran said that it was not advisable to pin any hopes in Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman as far as negotiations with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was concerned.
“I don’t think that Fazlur Rehman can do anything,” he said while underscoring that it was the JUI-F chief who had been in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2002 to 2007.
“As far as Maulana Samiul Haq is concerned, it is the first chance for him. And if he thinks that he can do something, then he should be given the opportunity,” Imran remarked. He added that anyone who believed that they could take the negotiation process forward should be given the chance.
The PTI chairman said he did not believe that the federal government was serious about holding talks with militant groups, adding that it was a major disappointment when the All Parties Conference (APC) passed a resolution for negotiations with militant groups and the United States “droned” the process by launching a drone strike.
“Neither the federal government nor the prime minister issued a statement condemning the drone attack,” he said and added that they failed to take up the matter in United Nation’s Security Council.
He said NATO supplies could be banned to exert pressure on the United States to stop drone strikes and said the strategy was being used in KP but supplies were continuing through the Chaman border.
Imran alleged that the federal government was pursuing a policy of hypocrisy like its predecessor. “Under this policy, the government publicly condemns drone strikes and privately subscribes to its policy,” he said.
He was also critical of utilisation of funds in the country and said funds for development purposes should be equally distributed among federating units.
