'Corrupt have no right to rule'

LAHORE - The government should resign and hold mid-term elections as it has lost credibility to remain in the office after the release of NRO beneficiaries list.
This was demanded by Imran Khan, Chief Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI), on Sunday while addressing a news conference at his residence. Senior party leaders Umar Sarfraz Cheema, Ahsan Rasheed and Mahmoodur Rasheed were also present on the occasion.
How the incumbent government could conduct fair and impartial accountability of its own Cabinet members who had benefited from NRO, he questioned. He proposed that the present govt should set up an independent accountability forum, if it was sincere to the people.
Imran criticised PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif for holding that President Asif Zardari had got immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution. How can a person who was accused of serious crimes hold the highest public office?
He appealed to Nawaz Sharif to play his due role to bring NRO beneficiaries in the court of law, failing which the masses would get the impression that PML-N was protecting the corrupt elements.
He said billions of rupees of people had been looted under the NRO, and deposited in the foreign banks, adding that corruption was the main cause behind all the crises being faced the country.
Imran said PTI was not trying to destabilise the democracy in the country but only raising its voice against the corrupt elements, and it was right of the opposition parties and the masses to question the governance of the rulers.
He said mid-term polls were a part of the democratic process and not a conspiracy against democracy. The masses could not allow the corrupt rulers to rule for another five years, he added. He said the government was itself conspiring against the democracy by protecting the corrupt elements.
Imran observed that no political party could stop the Army from taking over the power but it was only the masses who could block their way, provided that the rulers enjoyed popular support. He said in Venezuela people took to the streets to protect a Hugo Chavezs popularly elected government against a military coup.
To a question about Transparency International report, he said the masses were saying that the previous government was better than the present one that was being run by a military dictator.
Imran, to another query, replied that PTI had already pointed out that the NRO was an agreement of corruption and the international players who facilitated the formation of the ordinance wanted to put in place a puppet regime that pursued their agenda in Pakistan.
Replying to yet another question, he said if the government could not fulfil the masses aspirations regarding the issue of NRO beneficiaries, they could launch a protest drive against the incumbent set up, which would end only after the dislodging of the current rulers.
He said the people were tired of hollow promises regarding rooting out corruption and they wanted practical steps in this regard to see administration of real justice.