SHIKARPUR - PTI chief Imran Khan on Thursday accused Sindh leaders of embezzling public funds and asked Rangers to take action against corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if his party’s government was unable to do the job.
“Corruption is indeed the greatest malady of Sindh. Development funds are being siphoned abroad,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman said, in an apparent jibe at Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership.
Imran said this while addressing a press conference at the residence of PTI central leader Ifitikhar Ahmed Soomro in Shikarpur. The visit was part of a province-wide election campaign for the forthcoming local government (LG) polls.
The PTI chief claimed that funds for provincial development in Sindh had gone into the pockets of “those in power”. The people of the province wanted to see real change in the current system, he added. “I have been visiting this province for 19 years and I can tell the tsunami is soon going to sweep away corruption in Sindh… Corruption destroys a society, and we will fight for the rights of the people of Sindh,” he said. He also assured farmers that his party will stand with them and fight for their rights.
“I could not visit Sindh as many times as I should have (in the recent past),” Imran said, adding that he was mainly restricted to the capital due to his sit-in and the proceedings of the judicial commission (JC) on alleged rigging in 2013 general elections. “It took me 2.5 years to expose rigging in the 2013 polls,” he said.
In response to a question, Imran Khan said the chief election commissioner assured him he will look into the issues highlighted by the JC and will make sure they are not repeated in the next elections. While praising efforts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for curbing corruption, Imran said he will welcome Rangers’ action against corrupt officials in KP too.
He said it is the PTI-led government in KP which declared Provincial Finance Award for the first time in the province.
Earlier last week, PTI chief announced holding a historic rally in Islamabad against what he called the corrupt provincial members of the Election Commission of Pakistan. The PTI will not repeat the past mistakes in awarding party tickets in the upcoming polls, he said.