Imran Khan says he has ‘neither broken the law’, ‘nor have any of his actions been against the law’
BUNER, June 03 (SABAH): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday warned the government against filing a treason case against him after reports emerged that key officials were mulling over the idea.
Key federal government officials deliberated over going ahead with filing treason charges against Imran Khan and the chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan over PTI’s May 25 “Azadi March” during a special committee meeting of the cabinet.
“Can Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif file treason cases against me? All of their properties are in foreign countries,” the PTI chairman said, claiming that the ex-president had sought the United States’ help against the Pakistani Army.
“And can Nawaz Sharif, who has taken four properties worth billions in London, decide whether I am a traitor?” Khan said, adding: “The only reason why the government is against me is that they know once I am out of the way, it makes it easier for them to siphon the country’s money to foreign countries.”
The PTI chairman claimed the coalition government knows that the people were still backing him, therefore, they have now decided to file a sedition case. The PTI chairman added that he has “neither broken the law”, “nor have any of his actions been against the law”. He stressed that his 126-day sit-in in Islamabad was “peaceful”.
“I never want to break the law and do not want to spread anarchy […] we never wanted to get into clashes with the army, rangers, or police,” the ousted premier said.
Imran Khan also took the government to task for the back-to-back increase in the price of electricity and petroleum products, saying it has “dropped an atom bomb of inflation on the nation”.
The ousted prime minister said during his 3.5 years in government, the petrol prices were hiked by Rs56, but during the present government’s “60 days in power”, it has gone by Rs60.
The PTI chairman said his government increased electricity per unit by Rs6 and the present government has hiked it by Rs10 in just two months.
Imran Khan said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had pressurised his government as well to increase the price of power and petroleum products, but there was a difference between him and the present government — “all their” leaders reside out of the country.
Imran Khan said that the present government leaders do not have “any stake” in Pakistan and that is the reason why they were accepting the demands of the international money lender.
“What do they care? They are the US and the IMF’s slaves. They take dictation from abroad and take all the decisions in line with foreign directives,” the PTI chairman added.
The ousted prime minister chided the government over record inflation and alleged that the government did not care about the nation as the ruling leadership had its money stashed abroad. He called the government “slaves of the IMF and the US” for complying with the demands of the fund to restore the bailout package.
“Instead of increasing the prices, we decreased petroleum prices by Rs10 to provide relief to the people,” he said, adding that the funds to provide the subsidy were diverted from elsewhere.
According to Imran Khan, the incumbent government relented to the IMF demands and hiked prices of petroleum products because “they have no stake” in Pakistan as their children and wealth were abroad.
The PTI chairman also compared the three and a half years of his rule with the two months of the current government. He added that during PTI’s rule, the price of a 20 kg bag of flour increased by Rs326 but during the last two months, there was an increase of Rs422 in the price of flour.
Similarly, Basmati Rice witnessed a hike of Rs55/kg compared to Rs40 during the PTI rule. The price of Ghee increased by Rs200 over the past two months whereas the petrol price was increased by Rs60 per litre by the government, he added.