Imran Khan rules out any compromise with opposition

Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday categorically said that he would not meet Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, because it would amount to compromising over Sharif family’s crimes.

During the fifth session of live “Aap Ka Wazir Azam Aap Key Sath’ programme, the prime minister said that he would not give Sharif’s family any NRO because doing so would be huge treason with the country.

The prime minister said that he did not consider (Shabaz Sharif) as an opposition leader rather he treated him as man who had committed serious crimes against the nation and country.

Responding to a query, the prime minister said an opposition leader had a stature but in the instant case, Shahbaz Sharif was delivering lengthy speeches in the parliament without caring to give reply to a number of graft and corruption cases pending with the courts.

He did not want to respond to Ramzan sugar mills case, transferring of Rs3.7 billion in the account of a peon Maqsood and Rs16 billion in the accounts of other servants. They were accounted for Rs8 billion cases pending with NAB, he added.

The prime minister said that Sharif family should take some pity on this country. Expressing his wonder, he said by using delaying tactics in the courts, what kind of service they were rendering to the democracy and setting example for a civilized society!

“If I meet him, it will amount to acceptance of their wrongdoings (corruption) as no longer a punishable crime in a civilized society,” he stressed.

The prime minister said that he wanted the nation to imbibe the basic principles taught by the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) regarding rule of law and equal treatment of all segments of society.

He stressed that as followers of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the nation should follow those principles.

He regretted that different trends had been set in the society for the powerful and the weak. The ordinary criminals had been languishing in the jails and the powerful elite was residing outside the country. Those criminals had been showered with flower petals.

If such were the standards in society, then set the jails open for the ordinary criminals, he said, adding that he was ready to talk to everyone including TLP and Balochs, but would not talk to such elements who had siphoned off the country’s wealth, the prime minister elaborated.

He said according to the World Bank rule of law index, Switzerland topped the list with 100 percent score. In Singapore, a minister committed suicide due to his corruption and in the US a powerful family also followed the same course to avoid public shame.

“Unless we follow the path of our Holy Prophet (PBUH), we cannot aspire to get prosperity,” he said, adding (Imran Khan) had no magic wand to set the wrong things right. The prime minister opined that a society had to fight such crimes and trends.

To another question, he invited the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return back and face the criminal cases. “I am waiting for your return to Pakistan, please return back,” he added.

About the opposition parties’ proposed march, the prime minister said the public would not come out on the streets to save their corruption.

He said the public had come out on the streets to support two leaders in the country, one Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then came out to support him in his campaign against corruption.

The prime minister said not a single party in the country ever brought supporters in huge numbers to Minar-e-Pakistan, and it was the PTI that did it by four times.

He said the corrupt junta could not befool the public anymore. Though there was an issue of price hike but the public would not come out on the streets as they understood two families’ theft and corruption.

The prime minister further said that his party would complete its current term in power and would also return to government in the next term, owing to tackling of historic and huge economic challenges faced by any past government in the country’s history.

He also warned the opposition parties that he would become more dangerous in case he did not remain in power.

“You will not find any place to hide. Whatever you have done with the country, the people knew it very well, the volcano is brewing. They will flee the country and hide in London,” he added.

Referring to Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister said he would not return back to Pakistan out of his love for the ill-gotten pelf.

Often, they floated rumours of deals to save their party from disintegration, he said, adding they were the elements whose time had run out.

“The way they treated the country, the nation is not ready to pardon them,” he observed.

The prime minister said a three-time prime minister, had been expressing his ignorance about the illegal accumulated wealth and the properties in UK worth billion of rupees. Even his sons were declaring themselves as citizens of UK to evade accountability, he added.

The prime minister responding to another question, reiterated that Allah Almighty had bestowed upon him with everything. He had entered into politics, some 25 years back. The party’s manifesto included the establishment of an Islamic welfare state.

The framers of the country’s constitution had inserted such ideology, he said, adding his whole life-long struggle hovered around the achievement of this objective.

He emphasized that unless they move on that objective, they could not become a nation.

The prime minister said from the day first, he had not promised to make Pakistan an Asian tiger or turn Lahore into a Singapore. The correction of mess and issues of the past seventy years would take time, he added.

The prime minister ruled out any compromise with the corrupt leaders terming them as ‘the big dacoits of the country’.

He said that they wanted to blackmail him. But he would not grant them any NRO of Musharraf who by striking a deal with these two families had done grave injustice with the nation, worse than his imposition of martial law.