Kicking-off election campaign from his home constituency NA-95 Mianwali, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday claimed that the country's future was about to change in four weeks. "I am launching the election campaign from Mianwali which will subsequently lead to establishment of PTI's government," he said, addressing a largely-attended public meeting.
He lauded people of Mianwali, saying they supported him when others were ridiculing; therefore, he chose to begin his election campaign from there. "If the residents of Mianwali would not have supported me in 2002, I might not have been doing politics today," he said, adding that by God's grace and through the efforts of youth of Mianwali, the PTI has become the biggest party of Pakistan today.
Imran Khan apologised those party workers who could not be awarded party tickets for Elections 2018, clarifying that he had received 4,500 applications and it was impossible to adjust all of them because only 500 contestants were to be granted tickets.
"Tickets were solely awarded on merit. I did field my relatives in the Elections," he said, comparing that PML-N gave candidacies to the Sharif family and the PPP to the Zardari family, but it was only PTI that awarded tickets purely on merit after a detailed survey.
PTI chairman also highlighted key points of the party manifesto, vowed to strengthen institutions including anti-graft watchdog NAB and FIA. He lamented bad governance of the PML-N government, citing that dollar had surged to Rs 125. "The nation is gradually drowning in debt which has crossed Rs 27 trillion in five years from Rs 13 trillion while the children of the Sharif family are becoming billionaires," he said.
Imran asked in what institution did the PML-N government brought reforms. He pledged to strengthen FIA and NAB and reform police, education and health sector.
He alleged that former chief minister Punjab and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif had 56 companies and each of them was marked with misappropriation of public funds. "Where is the electricity that Shehbaz Sharif generated? The development and projects were only showed in advertisements," he said.
PTI chief promised to bring an economic revolution in the country after coming to power. He vowed to collect Rs 8,000 billion tax from the country.
He said Pakistan was the fifth biggest country in terms of giving charity. He said governor houses and rest houses would be allocated for people.