Will dissolve Punjab, K-P assemblies on Dec 23: Imran | The Express Tribune

Former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party will dissolve both Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies on Friday, December 23.

“We will sacrifice both assemblies… we are sacrificing them for this nation… there will elections in 66 per cent of Pakistan,” he said while addressing his supporters at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk via video link.

“We will dissolve Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies next Friday and will prepare for elections.”

Imran said that PTI will go to the National Assembly speaker and ask him to accept the resignations of all PTI lawmakers. “Last time they chose only eight constituencies which were our weakest to conduct by-elections, but I contested elections on all eight seats and won seven of them,” he said.

“Now the wisdom says go for general elections. But they will not conduct the polls but we will go for elections ourselves. They will try to delay it via Election Commission of Pakistan, but the Constitution is clear that you cannot delay elections for more than 90 days,” he maintained.

‘Gen Bajwa conspired against my govt’

Imran, while addressing the rally via video link, said that former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa was behind the conspiracy to oust his government through the no-confidence motion.

“Question is who was responsible? One man was responsible and his name is Gen Bajwa. I did not use to take his name because he was army chief. We did not want army to be badmouthed. We want a strong army,” he said.

Imran Khan said that Gen Bajwa was behind the conspiracy. “They [establishment] thought Dar and Shehbaz were some kind of geniuses that they will run government better than us,” he added.

After my government fell, Imran continued, the masses supported PTI. “Our popularity increased even more after the no-confidence motion. Despite all efforts, they lost by-elections.”

Earlier in the day, the former premier held a consultative meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and other senior party leaders.

Also read: PML-N moves to nullify Imran’s threat of PA dissolution

Imran lashed out at the incumbent rulers over what he called atrocities on his party, saying that even during General (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf’s martial law, he had not witnessed such violence.

“They committed atrocities on us. They put me in jail during Musharraf’s regime but I never witnessed violence I saw during this tenure.”

Imran said that their social media workers were picked and after giving them a beating, they were released the next day.

He said that PTI leader Senator Azam Swati was stripped naked and beaten just because of one tweet. “All that because of a tweet which had truth in it? Everyone knows NRO-2 was given by General Bajwa.”

Imran said that when he was prime minister, he used to ask General Bajwa to take action against the “thieves” as National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was under him. “He used to say to me forget about accountability and fix the economy. How can Pakistan progress if you let these dacoits go scot-free? No society can progress until there is a rule of law. The big thieves destroy a country, not the small ones,” he remarked.

“As prime minister, I will tell the public how you saved people,” he told the participants.

Imran said that he knew about the conspiracy a year ago before it was executed and Shehbaz’s name was popping up for the premier’s post despite him having corruption cases worth Rs16 billion against his name.

“Whenever I used to ask General Bajwa, he used to say we will never do it [accountability] because we want continuity,” he said.

“General Bajwa used to say they are corrupt but now he is fine with them. Are we cattle? Wherever you take us we will go,” he added.

“When I was leaving in March, I had security threat to my life. I knew they will label it [attempt at his life] as religious extremism. I salute Bushra Bibi who used to say to me that this is jihad and you should go out. When I will be able to walk, I will be on the streets again. It is jihad for me and I will never stop.”

‘Gang of thieves’

Imran said there was a consensus within his party that until transparent elections are held, the country will sink further. “I sold everything I had abroad. I gave money trail. My everything is in Pakistan today. I had every opportunity… I lived abroad. I married there. I could have a British passport,” he said, asking the youth to never lose hope.

Imran said that he feared the “gang of thieves” was taking the country towards destruction. “Ask any labourer, farmer, and businessman… there is disparity between income and expenditures… our industries are closing. During our tenure industries grew. Large-scale manufacturing grew. We collected record taxes. We got record remittances. Agriculture grew by 4 per cent. We helped farmers. We were taking Pakistan towards prosperity.”

The PTI chief said that in the last seven months, 0.75 million Pakistanis have left the country as there was so much hopelessness. “These were skilled workers, doctors, engineers etc. There is a ‘daku raj’ in the country,” he added.

Imran said that Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif had left Pakistan ‘on the verge of default’ in 2018 during their previous tenure as well. However, he added, the PTI government performed exceedingly well despite challenges such as coronavirus pandemic.

“Pakistan was among the top three countries which managed the coronavirus pandemic very well. Whatever I am saying you can check on your mobile phones. Our growth rate was nearly 6 in our fourth year in power. We only grew at this rate during Ayub, Zia and Musharraf’s tenures but that was due to US dollars. We did not get any aid but we managed this growth rate.”

He said that there is a 100 per cent chance today that if someone gives loan to Pakistan it will not be returned, adding that this figure was at 5 per cent during PTI’s tenure.

“Industries are closing down and unemployment is on the rise. Inflation is at a 50-year high. Businessmen do not trust this government. Our loans are increasing. Their only hope is China and IMF that somehow they give money. But the way [to improve economy] is what we did. If they had done well with the economy we would have said okay let’s have elections on time.”

Imran said that the government only wanted to delay elections, not to fix the economy but because they fear they will lose the elections. “I believe they will not conduct elections in October as well. ECP chief will tell them how to delay it,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the PTI chief held a meeting with Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi and former federal minister Moonis Elahi.

According to PTI, important political issues and future strategies came under discussion during the meeting.

Hours before the meeting, Elahi had reiterated his stance in a tweet over the dissolution of Punjab Assembly.

“We will support every decision of Imran Khan… Imran Khan owns Punjab Assembly and we have returned this debt to him,” he wrote.

Elahi said that Imran Khan had “zeroed” political opponents, adding that rumour-mongers will fail like they did in the past.

Moonis also said that his party was firmly standing behind Imran Khan.