Imran Khan threatens PDM leaders with legal action

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday warned that legal action would be taken against organizers and facilitators of PDM’s gatherings as they were endangering the lives of people in the face of a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths.

In a chat with TV actor Hamza Ali Abbasi, PM Khan made it clear that he could leave his office but would not give them (opposition) NRO.

“Whenever they talked (in a veiled reference to PML-N and PPP), they tried to blackmail the government over their corruption cases as happened during FATAF legislation in parliament,” the prime minister said.

“I can leave my office, but cannot think of committing any treason with the country’ he stressed.

The prime minister referring to the opposition demands said they wanted NRO on their graft cases and under such conditions how could the parliament work.

To a question, he said the PDM leaders were holding their next public gathering in Lahore where the Covid 19 cases were sharply rising, with dozens of deaths.

He said the government would not provide an opportunity to this ‘union of crooks’ to create political dramas but strict action would be taken against the organizers who broke the laws.

The prime minister said the government had decided against holding public gatherings after rise in coronavirus cases.

“We had given clear SOPs. Ulema have been engaged whereas schools were also closed,” he maintained.

The prime minister while elaborating his point of view, further said that from day first day, the opposition wanted to blackmail the government but linking adoption of FATAF legislation with NRO.

They brought 34 changes in NAB’s law which amounted to burying of the anti-graft law, he added.

For the last, 30 years, these two parties (PMLN and PPP) remained in power and framed cases against each other, he said, adding general retired Pervez Musharraf gave them NRO. Swiss cases were dropped even after spending billions of rupees in the prosecution of these graft cases, he added.

“The country’s debt surged from Rs 6000 billion in 2008 to whopping Rs 30,000 billion in ten years. Musharraf gave them NROs to save his office,” he said.

To a question, the prime minister said there should be no two different sets of law for the powerful and the common people.

About his cases in the Supreme Court, he said that he had submitted replies with all the required documents and money trail but on the other hand, these corrupt rulers failed to even provide a single document to justify amassing of ill-gotten pelf.

About his vision of Naya Pakistan, the prime minister said that he wanted the country to stand on its feet as it was blessed with huge potentials and resources.

About uniform curriculum in the country, he credited Minister for Federal Education Shafqat Mahmood for developing a consensus over the system.

Efforts were afoot to introduce the uniform education system in the country next year, he said.

About his cricket career and his stay in the UK for studies, he said he personally witnessed different aspects of two different cultures of the UK and Pakistan which ultimately changed his views.

He regretted that under colonialism, superiority and inferiority complexes were handed over to the ruled nations.

Those western impacts had played a vital role in his upbringing because he always used to review his life and his cricket life. “Evolution process started from my personal experiences in the UK,” he added.

The prime minister to a query said that he had witnessed the breaking of the family system in the United Kingdom whereas they had a strong family system which ‘is our strength’.