ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday linked the proposed dialogue with the release of party founding chairman Imran Khan, to release of other jailed party leaders and workers, and the return of ‘stolen mandate’.
Speaking at a presser here, the opposition leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub, along with PTI spokesman Raoof Hasan, said that the party would not proceed with the proposed dialogue with the establishment without the release of Khan, and others leaders illegally languishing in different jails.
“If our mandate is returned, we’ll be in power […] this is something the fake rulers who have been imposed on us through Forms 47s are afraid of holding talks as they know it will be their last day in power,” he added.
Ayub contented that “there is only one leader in the country whose prison number is 804,” who make reforms in the country to give an end to draconian laws in the country, adding the people had voted Imran Khan to power but people’s mandate was stolen.
To a question about the talks, he said that the regime has to accept the demands for initiation of talks or else the party along with other like-minded parties will take to the streets to snatch their rights.
We’ll be left with no option but to take to the streets. If the regime is serious about holding talks, it must release Imran Khan and all other jailed party leaders and workers, or it will have to face the wrath of the people, he maintained.
He claimed that the opposition leaders both in the Senate and National Assembly are not being allowed to meet Imran Khan in jail, and this is in no way justified, adding if this attitude continued, the party will knock at the doors of the courts.
“The history is witnessed to the treatment given in jail to Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, and the history is also witnessing how the most popular leader of the country is being treated in jail,” he lamented.
Ayub said that there is no difference between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) as all three political parties had a similar agenda under what he called a London Plan.
He said that there had also been a constitutional violation for the first time in the house, as in accordance with Article 73 of the Constitution, the finance minister is supposed to read out from budgetary documents, including pink books, Economic Survey, but none of these were available for the lawmakers.
Ayub said that Punjab Police have been turned into a “dacoit force”, adding the harassment of women, children and PTI leaders have become a norm, which the party would fight in the courts.
He demanded immediate release of Azhar Mashwani’s brothers, as well as, other party activists who have been ‘kidnapped’, adding the way journalist Imran Riaz was arrested from the airport while on his way to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj is shameful.
He also lambasted Law and Justice Minister Azam Tarar after he said there was no need to investigate the wheat scandal, saying the way Tarar insisted shows that a probe into the scam would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the sitting government.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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