SIALKOT - PTI tsunami hit Sialkot Saturday with its chief Imran Khan declaring the last general election ‘historic fraud’ and vowing to move courts and take out to streets against this ‘heinous crime’.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) held a huge public meeting at the Jinnah Stadium where according to party officials more than 20,000 chairs were arranged that too proved insufficient before a ‘flood’ of the masses.
Addressing the participants, Imran Khan repeated his claim that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) failed to conduct transparent election; rather, its officials were part of this stealing of the public mandate.
The PTI chief praised the enthusiastic people of Sialkot, who gathered there in sizzling hot weather, and demanded recounting of the votes in NA 110 (Sialkot-I) constituency through thumbs verification, claiming that massive rigging was carried out in this constituency during 2013 general elections.
Khan said PML-N’s Khawaja Muhammad Asif (Federal Minister for Defence, Water and Power) defeated PTI’s Usman Dar through electoral cheating. He said that DPO of Hafizabad ran election campaign of his rival party. He also played an alleged tape of the DPO’s talk during the rally. “This massive show has proved that Sialkot is a fort of PTI, not stronghold of PML-N.”
Terming rigging in general polls a ‘blot’ on the face of democratic system in the country, Khan in his speech vowed to unveil the faces of those who engineered the elections. He said that people’s anger against rigging was now souring up as he pledged to continue its nation-wide move against voter fraud and announced that next PTI tsunami meeting will be held at Bahawalpur on June 22.
Imran Khan urged the superior judiciary to come forward and play its pivotal role in providing justice to the nation, saying that the whole nation was setting eyes on them (judges) over this electoral fraud. He said the superior courts still remain a ray of hope for the people for protection of their political and basic rights. He said that formation of an independent election tribunal could be helpful in clearing this mess. He stressed upon the need of speeding up the pace of dispensing justice, saying that one year has elapsed but the PTI was still waiting for justice to be done.
The PTI chairman dispelled the impression that there was any threat to democracy due to his party’s ongoing protest campaign against alleged vote fraud in the country, saying that PTI will safeguard the constitution and democracy. PTI, he said, never wanted to topple the government; it will never leave the way of democracy and will play its pivotal role to strengthen it.
However he warned that the nation-wide tsunami of the people was now surging up, and their anger would soon wash out the rigging engineers. “The people would never forgive the rigging engineers and those who stole the public mandate.”
He said that the rulers were not showing political maturity regarding PTI demand of vote verification. “I am talking about reopening of four constituencies for voters’ verification. Massive rigging has been carried out in every constituency we have opened so far,” he said. He accused PML-N and former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of stealing the last general elections and called for action under Article 6 against them.
Imran Khan strongly criticised the PML-N government and termed it an “affair dominated by Sharif family”. The biggest problem being faced by Pakistan is family-limited politics. “This is not democracy, it is monarchy.” Khan said that only free and fair election could guarantee a positive change and ensure rapid national progress.
The PTI chief said that a year has passed since installation of PML-N government but there is no positive change. He said PML-N broke all records of foreign loans in just one year instead of breaking the begging bowl. He alleged the government has pushed the nation into quicksand of problems because of which poor are selling and killing their children and committing suicides. This nasty situation was reflects miserable failure of the PML-N government, which had not yet given any relief to the people. “People don’t need metro busses and trains. They need food, shelter and clothes (more).”
Imran Khan pledged that after coming to power, his party would tax the rich after coming into power, and spend the tax money on the people at large. He said PTI would lay foundation of new Pakistan where countrymen would enjoy social justice and all the basic rights. He said their initiatives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would start yielding positive results within three months.
Addressing the rally, AMPL President Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed declared the national assembly a “fake assembly” and termed PM Nawaz a “fake prime minister”. He said there was nothing for the poor in this budget saying that no one could feed even an animal in Rs12,000 per month, the minimum wage set by the government. This budget is nothing more than an “extortion budget”. He said PM Nawaz during his India visit preferred meeting with the Indian actresses to giving time to Indian Kashmiri leaders.
PTI President Makhdum Javaid Hashmi said PTI will give tough time to the PML-N government now after waiting for a year to see the government honour political promises. He said that the PTI was in to remove the black stains on country’s democratic face.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his speech said that economic, internal and external policies of PML-N government have badly harmed the country and the people. PTI leader Jehangir Tareen said that 90 percent people of the country have declared Nawaz Sharif as a failure. He said that the government was making efforts to cover the massive rigging carried out in 2013 general elections.
Clashes between PTI workers and police occurred before and during the speech of PTI chairman. Police baton charged several PTI workers when they tried to jump on the stage from back side by climbing on the containers placed there. Several of them were injured after falling down from the containers kept there to serve as stage.