LAHORE - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Monday called former finance minister Ishaq Dar the biggest cheater of Pakistan and attributed his homecoming to an underhand deal.
“Over here, thieves are involved in deals. Ishaq Dar left Pakistan for London. Ishaq Dar could not justify his assets, which is why he absconded. He is returning under a deal,” Imran said
Addressing a political event at the Government College University (GCU), Lahore campus here, the PTI chief said that the country could not move forward because of the thieves who were offered deals and given NROs here in Pakistan.
He said this was the reason that thefts would not end, and the money laundering would go unabated. Khan said Ishaq Dar had left the country on the PM’s plane because he had no answers to the questions of the National Accountability Bureau about his assets. He said Dar fled the country under the pretext of getting treatment, but many would not know what treatment he was seeking abroad.
He urged the people not to watch this, what he called, a theatre like goats and sheep and rise against oppression and injustice. Borrowing a quote from Aristotle, Khan said the great philosopher had said 2500 years ago that if there was oppression and injustice in a society, all the sections of society would rise against it except the cowards and the selfish.
He also cited the oft repeated example of the people of Kufa who did not side with Imam Hussain (RA) out of the fear of Yazeed despite knowing that he [Imam Hussain (RA)] was on the right path. Giving these two examples, Khan concluded that this was how they become a slave.
“When a person bows down before a fear, he commits shirk”, he said and added that this was why the God Almighty had made Jehad obligatory to fight against oppression. Talking about the recent audio leaks, Imran said that the story had unfolded with Wikileaks followed by Dawn leaks, and now comes the audio leaks. He said it was quite evident from the audio leaks that the current chief election commissioner was the house servant of the Sharif family.
He said that he had struggled hard to introduce electronic voting machines (EVMs) for free and fair elections, but the chief election commissioner opposed the move at the behest of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari. “If he has even a fraction of shame, he should resign now; and if he does not, we will force him to resign.” He predicted that more audio recordings of the present rulers will come to surface soon. The former prime minister also asked the students of the Government College University, “to whom Donald Lu was addressing in the cipher to remove my Govt?” Students replied “neutral neutral”. The PTI chairman appreciated them by saying “you passed the first test.”
Addressing the gathering at Government College University (GCU) in Lahore, Imran also said that the audio leaks had made it apparent that CEC Raja was a “servant of the Sharif household”.
In the audio leaks, “Nawaz is telling him [CEC] who should be disqualified and when to hold elections,” the former premier said. After the audio leaks, the CEC should resign if he has even an ounce of shame, he said. “But he doesn’t [have any shame], so we will have to make him resign.” Turning his guns on Maryam, the PTI chief referred to one of the audio recordings purportedly featuring a conversation between PM Shehbaz and an unidentified official about the possibility of facilitating the import of Indian machinery for a power project that was linked to the PML-N vice president’s son-in-law.
Lambasting the PML-N, particularly PM Shehbaz, Imran said that his government had ended trade ties with India after New Delhi had revoked occupied Kashmir’s special autonomy in August 2019.
“There are still no ties, but Maryam’s son-in-law [intends] to procure machinery from India,” Imran continued, adding: “And what is prime minister cherry blossom’s response? He suggests that they bring the machinery via another country instead of telling them not to import it at all.”