Islamabad - Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan yesterday came out in the capital to campaign for his party in the upcoming local government elections.
Khan stopped at different parts of the city and had chitchat with the party workers and voters to mobilize them to vote for the PTI. He also visited different election offices of the party in various parts of the city. As PTI had scheduled two big rallies, one in Tramari Chowk and other in Sector G-7, for the address of Khan to the public as well as loyalists of the party, the Islamabad Capital Territory administration asked the party to the cancel the both.
In a letter written by the Additional District Magistrate ICT to PTI MNA and organizer of these meeting Asad Umar, the local administration said that PTI should cancel these public meeting because it is violation of instructions issued by the government in the light of the code of conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The letter said that the government’s instructions mentioned that VVIPs like Imran Khan should not address the elections meetings in view to the volatile security situation of the country.
However, Khan ignoring the direction of the local administration addressed the public rally in Tramari Chowk near Chak Shahzad and came down hard on the government and the ECP for allegedly obstructing his public addresses.
“This is the worst example of democracy. The ECP and the local administration by not permitting me to campaign for the election have proved that both are the mouth pieces of the government,” he said while addressing the rally. He said that the masses of the capital would take revenge from the government through vote on November 30. He assured the participants that he himself would monitor the working of the elected members of PTI. He again alleged the government for rigging the ICT election in connivance with ECP. He said that the government ministers and members of the National Assembly had the permission to campaign by violating the election code of conduct but the leadership of PTI was being obstructed to have routine election campaign. He said that the act was commendable.
“The prime minister chose local MNA of Islamabad as his cabinet member ahead of the election to bribe the wise people of the capital,” he said while pointing towards Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, MNA from Islamabad, who was recently elevated as the minister of state of capital administration and development division (CADD). He also alleged that the government was running election campaign through national kitty.
“PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari succeeded to get himself acquitted from the corruption cases of Rs 6 billion through the underhand deal of PML-N and PPP,” he said. He added that even no action was taken against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif despite there were more than dozen cases pending against him in National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Khan also criticised the government for not declaring the public holiday in ICT on the polling day.