ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said that the government may arrest him and that he is prepared to go to jail.
He was responding to media queries during his informal talk outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
When asked what would be his strategy if the court does not grant him the bail, he replied: “Jail”. He added that he was “ready” and “prepared” to go to jail.
To a similar question that whether the government will succeed in sending him behind the bars, Imran Khan replied: “May be.”
In response to another query that the PML-N government would hunt him down, the PTI chairman said that he had more stamina than the Sharifs.
Responding to another query about the foreign funding case, he claimed that the PTI was the only political party that raised the funds “legally”, adding that other parties raised their funds in a “bogus” way.
“The day the foreign funding cases of all the political parties are fixed collectively, I can give you in writing that fundraising of only one party will come out to be legal, which is the PTI, while the funds raised by the rest of the parties will emerge as bogus,” he claimed.
The PTI chairman also accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja of not bringing to light the funding details of other political parties, despite the court’s instructions to hear the cases of all the parties.
“He [the CEC) is not hearing the cases collectively, because he is like their family member and a biased man. If he brings the details of the parties, the nation will get to know as to which party has the legal funding and which is not,” he alleged.
In response to another query about the leaked audios, he said that the recording of phone conversations and releasing their audios, is a matter of national security concern.
“What else can be a bigger national security concern?” he asked, adding that releasing audio tapes was a crime. “That’s why I’m going to approach the court on this matter,” he added.
When his attention was diverted to the worsening security situation in Swat where people are holding massive rallies against militancy, Imran Khan said the situation in Swat is “critical”.
Later, addressing a Traders Union Workers Convention, the PTI chairman criticised the government’s economic policies, saying that the PDM government came with the promise of reducing inflation, but today the country is facing a record increase in inflation.
According to the current government’s Survey of Pakistan, he added, when the PTI government was overthrown, the country’s economy was recording its best growth for two consecutive years for the first time in 17 years.
“During the time of (Finance Minister) Ishaq Dar, who he alleged ‘imported’ from London, the price of oil in the global market was half of that of the PTI government’s time and despite that the external deficit is $20 billion,” he maintained. He said that the PTI government had inherited only $ 9 billion reserves and a record internal and external deficit.
He stated that during the PTI government, there was record production in four major agricultural crops, the industry was growing at over 11 percent, IT exports increased by 75 per cent, and the World Bank said that Pakistan created the most jobs despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that in Faisalabad’s textile industry, the PTI government had created record employment, “whereas, today the textile industry is suffering like never before”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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