In a shocking claim, (Pakistan’s) Imran says he was powerless in govt

LAHORE – In an obvious reference to the powerful military establish­ment, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday claimed that he was rendered powerless during his three and half year’s tenure as the prime minister of Pakistan.

“Here, the responsibility was mine, but someone else wielded the real power,” he said without naming anybody while talking to journalists belonging to the electronic media here. The for­mer prime minister said that he was the prime minister but remained merely a figurehead throughout his tenure as noth­ing was under his control. The PTI chairman maintained that if he had got even half the pow­er in three and a half years, he would have competed with Sher Shah Suri, a famous Indian ruler of 16thcentury.

“We would nab the tax de­faulters of billions of rupees, but they would approach cer­tain powers, and get scot-free”, he said, adding: “When there is rule of law, the society is pros­perous”. Khan said that it was while being in the government that he found out that billions of rupees of Pakistanis were lying outside the country. I also came to realise while in the govern­ment that “We lose our freedom for IMF dollars”.

Later, while addressing an ISF convention here, the PTI chair­man recalled that in the six­ties, the world would give ex­amples Pakistan’s development because it was then compet­ing with Singapore. The Amer­ican president would come to receive a Pakistani president at the airport”,

He said Pakistan had nothing at the time of independence. When a nation is formed, it is not difficult to collect money”, he added. Talking about his ear­ly life, Imran told the students that when he was a teenager, he used to pray that he should not live beyond thirty years. “And when I turned forty from thir­ty, that age was better. Each ten years became better than the previous life because I accept­ed the challenge. The moment a sportsman stops accepting chal­lenges, the life stops for him. Now hardly any man at the age of seventy accepts a challenge in life When the challenge ends your life ends”, he said.

He said it was a pity when a nation stops working hard and taking challenges and becomes a beggar. “When the people give up struggle, they lose their re­spect”, he added.

He went on to say: “I had a very easy life when I was play­ing cricket. I used to comment on cricket and used to get big money. Every ten years, I got better. I kept challenging my­self; You get retired where your life stops. The moment your challenge ends your life ends. Even now, I see some players who are there where they were thirty years ago.”

He said that it were the stu­dents who led revolutions and because the frontrunners in ev­ery movement. “When big rev­olutions come, when societies are formed, when the destiny of a nation is formed, it’s students become its first runners. You have to go to every university and college and distribute pam­phlets about PTI’s struggle. The message has to be taken in the colleges and universities;

He said thieves had been im­posed on the country. Now, an­other criminal has been made the governor of Sindh”, he add­ed. Also, addressing a work­ers’ convention at Sharqpur, the PTI chairman said that he did not want to have an army chief, a judge, a chairman NAB or the IG of his choice because he had not indulged in any corruption. He maintained that he wanted all the key postings to be made on merit.

Meanwhile, The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday granted protective bail to Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan till Octo­ber 18 in the prohibited fund­ing case.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the application filed by former prime minister Imran Khan seeking protective bail in FIR registered by Federal Inves­tigation Agency against him in prohibited funding scam.

Additional Attorney General Munawar Dogal argued that the petition of protective bail could be heard only when the matter belongs to the other province.

The chief justice remarked that the special court should have heard the bail case, adding that if there was an issue then this court was granting protec­tive bail till that time.

Earlier, Imran’s lawyer Suleman Safdar Advocate con­tended that there was a risk of arrest of his client. He said that prohibited funding case should have been heard by spe­cial judge central. The advo­cate prayed the court to grant his client protective bail so that he could file bail petition to the concerned forum.__The Nation