MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday that people in Pakistan would celebrate and distribute sweets if the military takes over, unlike what happened in Turkey.
“People will celebrate the military takeover in Pakistan. The democracy here is threatened by Nawaz Sharif’s monarchy, not military,” he told a political gathering in Islamgarh, Azad Kashmir, ahead of general elections in the valley on July 21.
Khan said the Turkish people took to the streets against the attempted military coup because their president served them. “Erdogan served his people, paid off their country’s debts, and constructed hospitals. That is why people supported him against the military,” he said.
Khan lambasted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for “keeping a mum” over the Panamagate. “We demand PM Nawaz to let us know where he got the money from to have offshore assets, but he does not answer us.”
“Sure, do not reply. Neither did Saddam answer his people nor Gaddafi,” he said, referring to the slain leaders of Iraq and Libya, respectively, whose rules were overthrown in brutal civil war.
The PTI chief said that Pakistanis had a prime minister who made a lot of wealth and took it out of the country. “Nawaz Sharif is trying to establish a monarchy in the country” so that he does not have to be answerable to anyone, he said. Sharif wants to rule like Middle Eastern rulers, which he admires, he said. Had the prime minister been democratic, he said, he would have been answerable to the parliament and the people of Pakistan. He said that Pakistanis should not fear the military; they should fear those establishing a dictatorship in garb of democracy.
The PTI chairman lashed out at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He said it was regretful that the NAB had absolved Finance Minister Ishaq Dar of all charges relating to money laundering and illegal assets. He said that Dar had given a 45-page affidavit of his confession that was also the subject of a documentary of the BBC.
This was Khan’s first visit to Azad Kashmir after his return from the United Kingdom. Urging the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to vote for his party, the PTI chairman said that Pakistan should be strengthened in order to pressurise India to free occupied Kashmir.
Khan has convened a workers’ convention in Islamabad on July 20 where he is expected to announce his decision about an important march on August 14 and street protests against the government over its failure to investigate the Panama leaks.
